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Shinichiro Uchikura Solo Exhibition
“The Sea of Oblivion”

■Period        

August 5th (Saturday), 2023 - September 9th (Saturday), 2023

Wednesdays through Fridays, 13:00-20:00 | Saturdays, 12:00-19:00

(closed on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and National Holidays)

*summer holidays: August 16 (Wed) - 19 (Sat)

■Venue　　　

KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY

2-7-5-5F, Nishiazabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0031

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□Cooperation: Akaaka Art Publishing, Inc.

▼TALK EVENT

Date & Time:

Venue:

Speakers:

August 5th (Saturday), 2023 | 17:00-18:00

KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY

Michiko Kon (photographer) × Hikari Machiguchi (art director) × Shinichiro Uchikura (photographer)

admission free | no reservation required

*Kindly note the talk will be held in Japanese language only.

Globe, from the series The Sea of Oblivion
2023 | archival pigment print | ©︎ Shinichiro Uchikura, courtesy KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY

KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY will celebrate the publication of Shinichiro Uchikura’s monograph The Sea of Oblivion (Akaaka Art Publishing, Inc.) on August 5, 2023, with a solo exhibition featuring new works from the series.

 

Shinichiro Uchikura is a photographer from Nobeoka City, Miyazaki Prefecture. After studying photography in Osaka, he began his career by presenting street snapshots and self-portraits. Since taking over his father’s photo studio in 2009, he has been based in Miyazaki Prefecture, creating various photographic works. His portrait works, which led to the monograph My Portrait (2020, Akaaka Art Publishing, Inc.), won many awards and acclaim; and his previous work Collection, in which he photographed various abandoned objects in Nobeoka, won the 41st Canon New Cosmos of Photography Award for Excellence and was selected for the “Tokyo Photography Month 2022” organized by the Japan Photographic Society and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography.

 

For The Sea of Oblivion, Uchikura says he was absorbed in walking around the seashore with a camera in his hand, where many plastics, daily necessities, and unexpected debris had washed up. Scooping up the voiceless voices of the things that have ceased to exist, the images are as though the last portraits of such objects. By taking a bird’s-eye view of the traces of human activity, the work transcends time and even evokes a sense of awe. We warmly welcome all to this occasion commemorating Uchikura’s new monograph.

Artist Statement

I live and work in Miyazaki Prefecture. Everywhere I look, it is surrounded by the sea. The shore continues with beautiful beaches well-cleaned by the government and volunteers. A little further out, however, is the opposite world. The seashore as it is in today's society, where debris and jetsam have been dumped and forgotten, and no one even enters.

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Plastic, gloves, toys, fish, and bird carcasses with empty bright colors have become trash. Things have been tossed about by the waves of time from afar, dried up by the sun, and transformed into new forms. These are the traces of human involvement in the past, evoking a strange sensation that does not seem to belong to this world.


I collect the debris one by one, absorbed, looking only down. I feel the discarded objects speaking to me. Someone made them, had them, and came with the waves to the beach. And then, they met me. This series is the last portrait that records their final state.

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Shinichiro Uchikura

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Artist Profile

Shinichiro Uchikura

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was born in 1981 in Miyazaki, Japan, and currently resides there after graduating from the Japan Institution of Photography and Film (Osaka). 

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His major solo exhibitions include “The Sea of Oblivion” (2023, GALLERY NEUTRAL, Kyoto [KG+ pick up]; 2022, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo; 2022, BLOOM GALLERY, Osaka), “The Floating Portrait” (2022, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo; 2022, BLOOM GALLERY, Osaka), “My Portrait” (2020, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo; 2020, BLOOM GALLERY, Osaka), “Star of November” (2018, EMON PHOTO GALLERY, Tokyo), “Dog  Warriors” and “Star of November” (2018, Kyogeirou G.GALLERY, Taipei), and “PORTRAIT” (2017, BLOOM GALLERY, Osaka).

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Major group exhibitions include “The Month of Photography Tokyo 2022” (2022, Higashikawa Bunka Gallery, Hokkaido), “2019 Dali International Photography Exhibition” (2019, Dali, China), “My Body, Your Body, Their Body” (2019, KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY, Tokyo), and “The 2nd Ningbo International Photography Week” (2017, Ningbo, China), and “YP” (2017, Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts, Yamanashi). 

 

Uchikura received the Excellence Award at the 41st New Cosmos of Photography (selector: Tomoko Sawada, 2018),  and was selected as the Excellence Award finalist for the 33rd, 34th, 36th New Cosmos of Photography (selector: Minoru Shimizu, 2010; Katsumi Omori, 2011; and Noi Sawaragi, 2013), and the Grand Prize for the 7th EMON AWARDS (2018), Wonder Foto Day Curator's Award (selector: Kana Kawanishi, 2019; and Joanna Fu, 2018), Konica Minolta Photo Premio (2016), Nikon Juna 21 (2008) among more others. 

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In addition to his latest monograph The Sea of Oblivion (2023, Akaaka Art Publishing), his major publications include My Portrait (2020, Akaaka Art Publishing), Early works 1: Street, Early works 2: Portrait, Kako, Dog Warriors, Star of November, and Collection (all 2022, KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY).

Installation View

>> 日本語PDF

>> English PDF

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