Melbourne’s Backwoods Gallery welcomes the return of YUSK IMAI and DANTE HOROIWA, combining their artistic talent to create a dual show, “Phantom Pain”.
As they illustrate in their statement, the show is the result of studio discussions exploring a “hidden sensation”, an abstract and constant, but unidentified source of pain. The show attempts to process and interpret that feeling, which perhaps stems from fear of death.
“This phantom pain keeps us going, fuelling our actions in life, always present, like gravity flowing through us and all things, always wise, reminding us, ironically, that everything is impermanent.”
“We hope that you may welcome this pain with warmth, and that it may feel less abstract now, as it does for us, through our exhibition…”
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YUSK IMAI
Yusk Imai is a contemporary artist who was born in the U.S.A. in 1982, to a Japanese descendent family. At the age of 6 months his family migrated to São Paulo where he currently lives and works.
Since 2007, Yusk has exhibited extensively within galleries, at art fairs and on the street across Europe, U.S.A., Australia and South America. The flat perspectives and dramatic curves demonstrated in Imai’s work is reminiscent of Art Nouveau greats such as Gustav Klimt.
Imai’s paintings and drawings lure us into state of self-consciousness and questioning. These ostensibly post-apocalyptic works tread warily between sci-fi apparitions, threatening premonitions and horror stills. Like a séance, they speak to Dali’s technique for creative thinking; a thinking that was founded on the moments in which we begin to fall asleep. When this sleeping pattern is interrupted and we are awoken, we find the subconscious rise to the conscious as a definitive form.
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DANTE HOROIWA
Dante Horoiwa is a self-taught contemporary artist who was born in São Paulo, Brazil in 1988, to a Japanese descendent family. Recently, Horoiwa has exhibited his paintings at the El Centenario Museum in Mexico, with further features in United States, South and North American galleries, as well as large-scale murals on the streets of East and West Europe.
His work frequently deals with themes closely connected to the foundations of human existence, which are universal to all living beings. Using a placid colour scheme of neutral shades, Horoiwa’s paintings, drawings and murals possess a mysterious, spiritual and soulful tonality. His work delves into the depths of human experience to explore the seen and unseen, using familiar devices such as long hair, textiles, plants and threads to connect the various forms, and evoke our sense of something magical and supernatural.
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The show opens Friday 8-24 June, Backwoods Gallery, Melbourne.
Exhibition catalogue available on request from: [email protected]
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