Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Solo exhibition at Mizuma Art Gallery

Our solo exhibition The Emperor's New Clothes will be opened from 22nd February 2017 at Mizuma Art Gallery Tokyo.

Ken + Julia Yonetani
The Emperor's New Clothes
22 February - 25 March at Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo
Opening reception: 6:00PM- 8:00PM Wednesday 22 February 2017
Access to visit the gallery's site.




Mizuma Art Gallery is delighted to announce Ken + Julia Yonetani’s solo exhibition “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, opening on Wednesday 22nd February.

In their 2015 solo show “Wishes” at Mizuma Art Gallery, Ken + Julia addressed the issue of nuclear power in a series of uranium glass chandelier works entitled “Crystal Palace”. Their brilliant glow in the darkened gallery space left a lasting impression.

Since then, Ken + Julia’s work has continued to draw ever higher acclaim both within Japan and abroad. In 2016 they held a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia, as well as participating in the Kenpoku art festival in Ibaraki, Japan, and the group show “Perpetual Uncertainty: Art in the Nuclear Anthropocene” at the Bildmuseet in UmeĆ„, Sweden. From March 2017 they will participate in the Honolulu Biennial. For their upcoming exhibition at Mizuma Art Gallery, Ken + Julia have shifted their focus to a series of new works on the theme of “money”.

“Money is at once nothing and everything.”
While Japan is considered to be a prosperous country, in fact its government debt to gross domestic product is the highest in the world. The value of a nation’s currency is dependent on trust, and when, as now, that trust is skating on thin ice, there can in fact come a time when its worth becomes less than the very paper it is printed on. Money influences every aspect of our lives, making the world go around, so to speak. Maybe it is precisely because it is so familiar that we have failed to notice its form changing shape before us. In this exhibition, Ken + Julia Yonetani invite you to contemplate the transformation of “money” that is taking place here, now.


In fact, Ken + Julia Yonetani themselves are a former foreign exchange broker and history professor respectively. The current context of the seemingly infinite ongoing expansion of debt on a global scale makes, in one sense, for perfect timing for the exhibition. Due to their very nature, the artworks can only be revealed in full on opening night. Echoing the fairytale “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, which forms the title of this exhibition, they offer the viewer an opportunity to question their own social values, and see “money” for what it really is. 

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Exhibition at Bildmuseet Uema, Sweden

We are exhibiting our work "Crystal Palace" in a group show at Bildmuseet in Sweden.

Perpetual Uncertainty / Contemporary Art in the Nuclear Anthropocene
Press preview on 29th September
The exhibition will be opened from 2nd October to 16th April 2017.

We are using a room of 240 square meters for an installation.
Further information to visit⇨the museum website

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

KENPOKU ART 2016, JAPAN

We are exhibiting our work in the KENPOKU ART 2016, Ibaraki Japan.

Please see the details of the venue and works⇨Click here

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Media launch and Opening at NGA Contemporary

Media launch tomorrow at 11:00AM on 11 December
and
Artist Talk at 2:00PM on Sat, 12 December

at National Gallery of Australia, Canberra



Photo by NGA


Sunday, November 15, 2015