TEZUKAYAMA GALLERY is pleased to announce Tomohiro Kato’s third solo exhibition, ” binary” for the first time in about five years.

After completing a master’s degree at Tama Art University in 2006, Kato honed his skills at a metalworking company while establishing himself as an artist. In 2013, his work “Steel Tea Room TETTEI (2012)” was presented at the 16th Okamoto Taro Contemporary Art Award Exhibition, and he won the Okamoto Taro Award. Also, the same year, at the solo exhibition « Sun and Steel » held at the Okamoto Taro Memorial Museum, he presented an intense visual experience and critically acclaimed installation, imprisoning Taro Okamoto’s works in his own prison-like pieces, mimicking a prison. The artworks trapped in heavy iron bars hinder the viewer’s appreciation, exposing the vulnerability of the objects. Moreover, by mimicking the institution of prison, he successfully visualised the inherent violence of iron as a material and simultaneously expressed the hidden aspects of authoritarianism within the museum.

Next, Kato extracted the shadow cast on the artworks enclosed in cages (anonymous series). The shadow between the iron bars and the people can be interpreted as linked to the boundaries society holds. It was inevitable that those with criminal records, wandering as objects on the boundaries of society, would become motifs. The abstracted works created by the complex arrangement of iron wires induce a moiré visual effect when viewed while moving perspectives. In contrast to before, the robust materiality of iron is neutered, and it stands in space like a flickering afterimage.

So far, the “anonymous series” has mainly presented motifs such as full-body or half-body portraits, as well as weapons. However, we would like to present sculptures focusing on the head in this exhibition. Detailed facial features that were not expressed in full-body portraits become apparent, and simultaneous- ly, due to their immense scale, the closer one gets, the more one recognises their ambiguous nature as stacked iron rings, a motif strongly emphasised.
In today’s world, where significant changes in societal perspectives are evident due to the accumulation of time and events, what accumulations have occurred in Kato’s own life? We invite you to take this opportunity to explore the new aspect of the series connecting the era and Kato himself.