Seiju Toda

HEIAN - Seiju Toda Solo Exhibition

wamono art | Wong Chuk Hang
CurrentPhotography
wamono art is pleased to announce the first solo exhibition in Hong Kong by Seiju Toda, one of Japan’s leading art directors and a fine artist. The exhibition features a body of works from Toda’s signature HEIAN series. The title “Heian” corresponds to a name of period in the middle age in Japan from the 8th to the 12th Century. However, with the title, Toda has never intended to provoke any nostalgia for that period. Instead, such elements as light, color, humidity, air and tenderness that the word Heian evokes in artist mind are the motivation of the project along with a hope the world today would reevaluate peace and well-being, that are just what the word Heian means. The concept of the creation is “subtraction.” Because the act of subtraction, as opposed to that of addition, can make things simple to stimulate people’s imagination. In fact, this is the very virtue of Japanese spirit of beauty. The materials are all “raw things” such as plain wood, living creatures and natural light. The shooting was done on a cloudy day at midday. The camera aperture is wide open and the distance from the subject is about 7-8 meters. The images are shot in a way that makes you feel as if you are watching with your own eyes open. Due to the difficult condition to have, it took three years of shooting before he accomplished the project. This HEIAN series is featured in his solo exhibitions at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2005 and at the Fukui Prefectural Museum of Art in 2023. In 2008, HEIAN‘s works were exhibited at the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit in Japan. Toda has been challenging himself with a variety of works he was a teenager. In this HEIAN series, he pursues simple expression with the concept of “subtraction”, which will invite the viewers to the new imaginations.... Show more
Artists
Seiju Toda
About Artists
Seiju Toda (Masatoshi Toda) was born in Fukui Prefecture in 1948. Since the 1980s, he is known as one of Japan’s leading art directors in the advertisement with his works for Suntory, Parco, Isetan, etc. When he was in high school, he was influenced by his teacher and artist at the same time, Tadahiro Ono*1, and decided to pursue art. His career as an artist began at the age of 17 when he gave a performance dedicated to John Cage. When he was 18 years old and a high school student, he participated in the Contemporary Art Festival (Sakai Independent Exhibition)*2 held in Osaka. In the 1970s, he held solo exhibitions of two-dimensional works using resin and other materials at Tokiwa Gallery, Muramatsu Gallery, Shirota Gallery and Fuma Gallery in Tokyo. In 1981, he was invited to participate in Hara Annual ll organized by the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art along with Shigeo Toya and Kenjiro Okazaki. Around this time, he began working in the commercial world, but also continued to create his own works. In 1983, he created a piece using cypress which is connected to the HEIAN series. In 1986, he created works using X-ray. In 2016, he created “jewelry” works that were digitally expressed in three dimensions using a computer. His solo exhibitions are held at the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design in 1995 and the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2005. In 2008, HEIAN‘works were exhibited at the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit in Japan. His works are in the collection of approx 30 museums around world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Hamburg Museum of Art, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Fukui Prefectural Museum of Art, the Toyama prefectural Museum of Art, and the Mie Prefectural Museum of Art. His major publications include X=t The Art of X-Ray Photography (Hudson Hills Press, USA), Seiju Toda Design World (Guangxi Fine Arts Publisher, China), and HEIAN (Hudson Hills Press, USA).... Show more
Date
Oct 5, 2024 – Jan 25, 2025
Venue
wamono art
Address
Unit A, 10/F, Derrick Industrial Building 49 Wong Chuk Hang Road Hong Kong
Website
https://wamonoart.com/seiju-toda-exhibition2024/

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