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installation view of exhibition entrance
installation view of several artworks
installation view of several artworks
installation view of several artworks
installation view of several artworks
installation view of hanging artworks
installation view of artworks hanging from the ceiling
Image of Yuko Murata's Big Voice, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
Big Voice 大嗓门, 2012
Oil on Canvas布面油画
27.3 x 22.0 cm; 10 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata'sSandra, 2011

 

Yuko Murata 村田有子
Sandra 桑德拉, 2011
Oil on Canvas 布面油画
22.0 x 27.3 cm; 8 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata's Sweet Home, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
Sweet Home 甜蜜的家, 2012
Oil on Canvas布面油画
33.3 x 24.2 cm; 13 1/8 x 9 1/2 inche

 

Image of Yuko Murata A Short Trip's, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
A Short Trip 短途旅行, 2012
Oil on Canvas 布面油画
33.3 x 24.2 cm; 13 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata's In Water, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
In Water 在水中, 2012
Oil on Canvas布面油画
27.3 x 22.0 cm; 10 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata's Mirror, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
Mirror 镜子, 2012
Oil on Canvas 布面油画
33.3 x 24.2 cm; 13 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata's Snow Beauty, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
Snow Beauty 白雪公主, 2012
Oil on Canvas布面油画
22.0 x 27.3 cm; 8 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata's There, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
There 这里, 2012
Oil on Canvas 布面油画
31.8 x 41.0 cm; 12 1/2 x 16 1/8 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata's Mint, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
Mint 薄荷, 2012
Oil on Canvas布面油画
27.3 x 22.0 cm; 10 5/8 x 8 5/8 inches

 

Image of Yuko Murata's Here, 2012

 

Yuko Murata村田有子
Here 那里, 2012
Oil on Canvas 布面油画
22.0 x 27.3 cm; 8 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's The Glacial Age, 2012

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
The Glacial Age 冰河世纪, 2012
Pencil, mineral pigment and glue on found paper 铅笔,矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
62.0 x 85.5 cm; 24 3/8 x 33 5/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2012

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2012
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
25.6 x 35.4 cm; 10 1/8 x 13 7/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
28.0 x 30.5 cm; 11 x 12 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
68.0 x 61.0 cm; 26 13/16 x 24 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Voyage Map (Earthenware Fragments), 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Voyage Map (Earthenware Fragments) 旅行地图(陶瓷碎片), 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
54.0 x 55.5 cm; 21 5/16 x 21 7/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Bikini Atoll, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Bikini Atoll 比基尼环礁, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
63.0 x 48.5 cm; 24 13/16 x 19 1/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Voyage Map (Caldera Lake), 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Voyage Map (Caldera Lake) 旅行地图(火山湖), 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
29.5 x 30.5 cm; 11 5/8 x 12 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
33.5 x 49.0 cm; 13 3/16 x 19 3/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
56.0 x 50.3 cm; 22 x 19 13/16 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
51.5 x 38.0 cm; 20 5/16 x 15 inches

 

Image of  Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
21.2 x 26.7 cm; 8 5/16 x 10 1/2 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
26.2 x 20.0 cm; 10 5/16 x 7 7/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
16.8 x 11.0 cm; 6 5/8 x 4 5/16 inches

 

Image of  Fumito Urabe's Untitled, 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
27.0 x 39.2 cm; 10 5/8 x 15 3/8 inches

 

Image of Fumito Urabe's Drifting Through (Eternity), 2013

 

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Drifting Through (Eternity), 2013
Driftwood and ceremic漂流木,陶土
Dimension variable尺寸可变

 

Press Release

YUKO MURATA: From Morning & FUMITO URABE: A Passage of Ancient Red Rice - 村田有子:自清晨 & 占部史人:古代赤米之旅程 - Exhibitions - James Cohan

Yuko Murata村田有子
Sweet Home 甜蜜的家, 2012
Oil on Canvas布面油画
33.3 x 24.2 cm; 13 1/8 x 9 1/2 inche

James Cohan Gallery Shanghai is pleased to present two solo exhibitions by two of Japan's most widely admired and dynamic young artists, Yuko Murata and Fumito Urabe. Opening on Saturday, January 11th, 2014 with a special reception for the artists from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., the exhibitions continue through March 2nd.


For her second exhibition at the gallery, from morning, Yuko Murata's paintings continue the artist's distinctive signature motifs of animals and landscapes. On view will be recent paintings of birds, barren, leafless trees, squirrels and other creatures, meek and mild, who rule over the deceptive powers of innocence. Much of Murata's source material for her paintings come from found photographs, postcards, wildlife guidebooks or encyclopedias. Though relatively modest in scale, her works have considerable material presence by way of
nuanced, layered brushwork and often playful compositions. In A Short Trip a tree-dwelling possum traverses the painting's edges, like a tightrope walker on a single arching branch. In the work Mint, more in Murata's 'portrait style' of animal imagery, a chipmunk poses in profile with its lush brown and white stripes emphasizing both curvature and break between an austere gray and brown background. These are a few notable examples of the subtle compositional shifts in Murata's new works. In her recent landscape paintings such as Sweet Home, the viewer is situated inside the trunk of a tree, looking upward through a hole to the sky toward distant bare treetops. In this work, as in several others, (Mirror, In Water, Here and There), all rational perspective is flattened, leveled and effortlessly displaced, creating a feeling of disorientation.

YUKO MURATA: From Morning & FUMITO URABE: A Passage of Ancient Red Rice - 村田有子:自清晨 & 占部史人:古代赤米之旅程 - Exhibitions - James Cohan

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2013
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
28.0 x 30.5 cm; 11 x 12 inches

Fumito Urabe's a passage of ancient red rice suggests an epic historical journey. Using found or discarded materials, Urabe constructs small boats made out bits of driftwood and creates map-like mixed media works on paper of imaginary islands drawn with mineral pigments. Featured in this exhibition will be two of Urabe's small-scale dioramas of shanty huts accompanied by miniature ceramic pots. Also on view will be a group of crude driftwood sail boats suspended in mid-air. Commenting on his own work Urabe says, “I depict the places and subjects that belong to no one . . . the world without the owner is also a place that everyone holds. Things are owned only momentarily by human beings—the land, objects, even our own bodies: nothing belongs to us forever. The found objects I collect indicate this truth; I live a moment of forever when I relate to those mediums.” Sekihan (赤飯 or red rice) is ceremonial rice. The rice of ancient Japan had a naturally reddish color and was intimately connected to spiritual beliefs long ago, often given as an offering to the gods. While Urabe's title for his exhibition might reference these ideas, his passage of ancient red rice might well serve as a metaphor for Buddhist tales he learned as a child. “Buddha's teachings seem far from me,” says Urabe, who is the son of a Buddhist monk. “Living in contemporary society it is not possible to live without trying to possess or to take. Making work is an act of self observation. As in Buddhist scripture, where a mirror is often compared to the mind, my work is also a reflection in a mirror.”

YUKO MURATA: From Morning & FUMITO URABE: A Passage of Ancient Red Rice - 村田有子:自清晨 & 占部史人:古代赤米之旅程 - Exhibitions - James Cohan

Yuko Murata 村田有子
Sandra 桑德拉, 2011
Oil on Canvas 布面油画
22.0 x 27.3 cm; 8 5/8 x 10 5/8 inches

Yuko Murata (b. 1973, Kanagawa, Japan) has been the subject of many prominent solo exhibitions since 2000. Her works were featured in the 2006 Taipei Biennial “Dirty Yoga” curated by Dan Cameron at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. She has had solo exhibitions in New York at Casey Kaplan Gallery (2009) as well as in Houston, Texas at Inman Gallery, and Alberto Peola, Turin, in 2009. Her works are in distinguished private and public collections including Daiwa Radiator Factory, Hiroshima; Takahashi Collection, Tokyo; The Obayashi Collection, Tokyo; The Sander Collection, Damstadt; Poligrapha, Barcelona, among numerous private collections in the United States and Europe. She lives and works in Tokyo.

YUKO MURATA: From Morning & FUMITO URABE: A Passage of Ancient Red Rice - 村田有子:自清晨 & 占部史人:古代赤米之旅程 - Exhibitions - James Cohan

Fumito Urabe 占部史人
Untitled 无题, 2012
Mineral pigment and glue on found paper 矿物颜料,胶水,收集的纸
25.6 x 35.4 cm; 10 1/8 x 13 7/8 inches

Fumito Urabe (b. 1984, Aichi, Japan) has been featured recently in “Re:emerge, Towards a New Cultural Cartography” curated by Yuko Hasegawa for the Sharjah Biennial 11, 2013, at Sharjah Art Foundation UAE, as well as his installation “The sky blue island” at the 2013 Aichi Triennale. His works are included in private and public collections, including the Sharjah Art Foundation, UAE; Takahashi Collection, Tokyo; Map Office, Hong Kong; and the Fiorucci Art Trust, London. This is his first exhibition with James Cohan Gallery Shanghai. He lives and works in Aichi, Japan.


For further information, please contact Ms. Ivy Zhou at izhou@jamescohan.com or +86 21 54660825*602. Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 6:00 p.m.; Sunday 12:00 to 6:00 p.m.; and Monday by appointment.

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