Yutaka Sone: Obsidian

Sifang Art Museum is honored to present the exhibition Yutaka Sone: Obsidian to the opening November 11, 2017. The exhibition, curated by Yutaka Sone, is his first institutional solo exhibition in China and will feature key works by the artist made between 2000 and 2017, as well as newly commissioned works/installations, collaborations, and performance. The exhibition will offer an unprecedented view of how the various strands in Sone’s practice interrelate and attest to the ubiquitous energy of his artistic spirit. Sifang Art Museum is honored to present the exhibition Yutaka Sone: Obsidian to the public opening November 12, 2017. The exhibition, curated by Yutaka Sone, is his first institutional solo exhibition in China and will feature key works by the artist made between 2000 and 2017, as well as newly commissioned works/installations, collaborations, and performance. The exhibition will offer an unprecedented view of how the various strands in Sone’s practice interrelate and attest to the ubiquitous energy of his artistic spirit. 

For the exhibition, Sone produced three new unique series of marble and ceramic sculptures, which are respectively entitled Obsidian, Snowballs and Wooden Logs. The notion of obsidian comes from the artist’s interest in questioning and pursuing the origin of the common occurring igneous rock. The mutable quality of obsidian made it a material often used by prehistoric people to make tools. For Sone, the obsidian bears the initial model of the vertical progress, which helped build the future of human civilization. 

Most of the artworks in this exhibition are completed by Sone’s studios in Fujian, China, Michoacán, Mexico, and Antwerp, Belgium. Sone cooperates and builds a close relationship beyond that of “commission/commisioned” with craftsmen, in order to create forms ranging from sculpture and installation to weaved works. In Yutaka Sone: Obsidian, the artist works together with volunteers and staff from the Sifang Art Museum to finish the “Obsidian” series, and the largest installation of the artist’s “Tropical Composition” series to date.

For the exhibition, Sone invited renowned artists. including Rirkrit Tiravanija and Oscar Murillo, to make use of his marble studio in Chong Wu. Additionally, Eduardo Sarabia, Mandy El-Sayegh, and Taro Wayama will participate in the show with new sculpture and performance works, marking an unusual debut of the remarkable artists collaboration.

About the artist
Contemporary artist Yutaka Sone was born in 1965 in Shizuoka, Japan. Sone studied fine art and architecture at Tokyo Geijutsu University and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. Across a wide range of media—predominantly sculpture but also painting, drawing, photography, video, and performance—Sone’s work revolves around a tension between realism and perfection. A conceptual framework, paired with a meticulous attention to detail, has characterized his practice since the early 1990s. His sculptural works in particular attest to a profound interest in landscapes, whether natural or architectural, and their ability to capture light relates them to a genre primarily associated with painting and photography.

Work by the artist is held in prominent international museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia; Kunsthalle Bern; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.