Natural Function

Taking a step back from the frenzied attention given to NFT’s and other new media whose status as art is a genuine question, Natural Function, focuses on the work of a group of international artists whose media is traditional - painting, sculpture, drawing - yet whose aesthetic is unquestionably contemporary. Characterized by their willingness to push their chosen media in extreme or otherwise surprising directions, each artist now stands in a position of radicality in relation to an art world characterized by a defiantly dumb position - a position which is justified by the speed and thrill of commercial transaction in the absence of art and its history. 

Takezaki and Nishimura are of different generations, yet are recent collaborators, each presenting a distinct and fresh approach to contemporary painting. J. Parker Valentine pushes drawing outside of its comfort zone, prioritizing erasure and repetition as much as any initial mark-making while Rieko Otake breathes new life into the media of sculpture - transfiguring solid wood into surreal, metaphysical figures. Varda Caivano creates paintings whose status as discreet, solid objects is called into question, while the work of Hiroshi Sugito, the eldest artist in the exhibition, stands as a symbol of the possible transformative power of experimentation with material - disarming with charm yet, perhaps, the most radical painter working in Japan today. 

The exhibition title, Natural Functions suggests both the body as well as a system - the participating artists all take advantage of both, pushing the limits of their media to offer viewers a new, irl, experience of art. —Jeffrey Rosen