Yusuke Asai @ ANOMALY (Tennoz)
Yusuke Asai’s solo show at NADiff Gallery in Ebisu, which ran until recently, drew a strong crowd.
This time I visited the show at ANOMALY (he moved there from URANO), the gallery he now belongs to.
A group exhibition of gallery-affiliated artists titled “Waste Land” was on view, presented in the viewing room — a small space on the gallerist’s office-desk side.
The Exhibition
This was a modestly scaled presentation.
The centerpiece was a wall-sized display of drawings, with another wall showing ticket-sized small works.
Yusuke Asai traveled across the Eurasian continent in 2018.
Russia, Armenia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Italy, the Republic of Malta, Spain, France, Germany…
Passing through many countries, Asai recorded the towns and landscapes he encountered at each destination as drawings. This body of work is titled “Daily Records.”
Right: “Daily Records — To See What Cannot Be Seen (Japan)”
The ticket-sized works were grouped together beside the gallery reception.
Each piece measures under 10 cm on its longest side and is priced at 28,000 yen (before tax), an accessible entry point.
Properly framed, these pieces gain even more presence.
I purchased one work myself. You can also ask the gallery to arrange framing.
* Asai himself offered to think through the framing.
TENNOZ ART FESTIVAL 2019
Also on view for a limited run of about one year, until around spring 2020, is a giant mural painted on the wall of a warehouse (Sanshin Warehouse) near Tennozu Isle Station.
It was created as part of the “TENNOZ ART FESTIVAL 2019” program.
The mural measures roughly 32 m tall by 40 m wide. The whole project took 19 days to paint — a major undertaking.
It’s closer to the station than ANOMALY, so it’s about a 5–6 minute walk from the gallery.
From tiny ticket-sized drawings to a mural tens of meters tall, the full sweep of Yusuke Asai’s world could be taken in across Tennoz.
