KANKAKU

December 16, 2021 – February 26, 2022
Alison Bradley Projects

526 W. 26th St.
Suite 814
New York, NY

Kaname Higa, Untitled, 2021, Charcoal on Japanese paper, 18 x 24 in. Image courtesy of the organizer.

Kaname Higa, Untitled, 2021, Charcoal on Japanese paper, 18 x 24 in. Image courtesy of the organizer.

Alison Bradley Projects is pleased to present its winter exhibition, bringing together works by six artists to contemplate the fluidity of artistic practice across different mediums. This exhibit showcases a selection of two and three dimensional works that challenge the boundaries of material as conceptual, ephemeral and tactile. The title of the exhibition, Kankaku, can be understood in two ways, depending on the kanji used—間隔 refers to the interval, the space between; and 感覚 refers to a feeling, sensation or impression. As we move through the winter, Kankaku offers an interval, a moment of reflection to consider the convergence of identity, sensation, and temporality— the promise of pause that comes with winter.

Tadaaki Kuwayama’s (b. 1932, Nagoya) monumental paintings display no subjective expression, harnessing the power of materiality and space through the use of acrylic and aluminum. His minimalist works capture the immersive yet fleeting sensation of the present as the form and color of each work transforms and is in turn affected by the gallery space itself. Ritsue Mishima (b. 1962, Kyoto) works with traditional glassblowers in Murano to produce elegant, colorless glassworks that are each uniquely textured and organic, appearing weightless as they absorb and refract ambient light from their surrounding environment. Aurora Pellizzi’s (b. 1983, Mexico City) practice dismantles the perception of a divide between contemporary art and traditional craft, combining textile processes with painterly modes of abstraction. In the sculptural painting selected for this exhibition, she uses the repetitive gesture of weaving alongside meandering linework to explore the ways in which time is both structured and spontaneous. Miwa Neishi’s (b. 1990, Tokyo) ceramic sculptures draw from Japanese calligraphy, abstract typography and Jomon prehistoric clay figurines. For this exhibition she created a body of work on a scale larger than her usual, playing with resonances between old and new, past and present. Kaname Higa (b. 1972, Okinawa), also known as Turtle Forest, uses pen on paper to create a series of mesmerizing drawings with a primarily monochromatic color palette. His highly detailed compositions negotiate the tension between meticulously rendered detail and negative space, evoking interstellar realities, familial longing, and the artist’s own fragmented memories. Higa’s sculptural works are likewise intricate—comprised of tiny elements which manifest themselves in creature-like, jeweled forms. Chuck Kelton (b. 1952, New York) is a virtuoso artist creating chemigrams, an artwork involving a complex alchemy of photographic chemicals, toners composed of precious and semi-precious metals, as well as unconventional methodologies such as the folding of the photographic paper itself. These cameraless works evoke imagined and ethereal landscapes and are also a deep gesture to the history of photography.

These six artists are dedicated to their own distinctive approach to medium—painting, photography, glass, textile, drawing, and sculpture. Taken together, the works included in Kankaku engage explicitly with light, space, and time. Each artist experiments with abstraction and presence, serving as a reminder to allow the inner self to take on new forms.