VENUES

KANA KAWANISHI GALLERY is a contemporary art gallery focused on significant Japanese and international artists whose works exemplify the interpretation of society through photography and other visual media.

KANA KAWANISHI ART OFFICE was founded in 2014, followed by the opening of its gallery space in Minamiazabu, Tokyo, in 2015. In spring 2017, the gallery relocated to its current location, Kiyosumi-Shirakawa, and opened KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, a satellite space specializing in photography in Nishiazabu in 2018.

While the gallery regularly hosts solo and group exhibitions at its two Tokyo locations, the gallery also actively participates in international contemporary art fairs. The exterior and interior of both the Kiyosumi-Shirakawa and Nishiazabu spaces were designed by Yuko Nagayama & Associates.

This exhibition will be Taichi Moriyama’s first solo show at the gallery, and it will present his expression in various spatial areas, from white cubes to large-scale outdoor art festivals.

Moriyama was born in Tokyo in 1988 and received his MFA in sculpture from the Tokyo University of the Arts in 2016. He visualizes invisible changes and movements in nature and cities by using materials such as driftwood and scrap wood collected in the area and returns the inherent locality of the landscape to his expression.

One of Moriyama’s past works is Ryujin (2017), a performance/installation in which the artist himself plays the role of a dragon god based on the theme of Suijin—a folk belief that glorifies the gods of the sea and rivers, which has spread in different forms throughout Japan. Another of Moriyama’s past works is STREET BUTTER (2017), a three-dimensional piece made of concrete, cigarette butts, gum, and other trash collected on the streets of Shibuya, hardened with wax, and finished like raisin butter.