KAZUMA KOIKE

KAZUMA KOIKE
Fish Scales and Tiger Dreams

[NYC 09/2024]

The Fridge is very proud to present Kazuma Koike first New York Solo Exhibition "Fish Scales and Tiger Dreams".
The opening reception will take place on Tuesday, September 3rd from 6pm to 9pm. The Exhibition will be running from September 4th to September 28th at The Fridge 31 Great Jones Street, New York.

Born in 1980 and lives in Osaka, Japan. 
Koike spent his childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina, attended high school in Barcelona, Spain, and graduated from the Department of Sculpture, College of Art at Nihon University in Tokyo. The works of Spanish sculptor Josép Clarà has inspired him to follow suit. Growing up in a multi-cultural environment, Koike is interested in “Shinbutsu-Shugo”, a mix between Japan's native Shinto beliefs and Chinese Buddhism. Koike visited numerous temples where their architecture, gardens, and sculptures became his inspiration. 

Koike started his first attempt of deconstructionism sculpture by compiling various dismantled found objects, removing their physical meaning, and reforming them into a sculpture. In the recent decade, Koike created most artworks by mixing images from different space and time, creating “fictional ancient artifacts” as if they do not belong to any era of the recorded history. Motifs of divinity, big cats, plants and pineapples repeatedly appears in Koike’s works, such as the tiger paintings of Japan's Edo period — there was no tiger in Japan at that time. Tiger paintings then were imaginary creatures made with reference to Chinese paintings, furs brought back and cats. Koike always aims at the state where “different elements coexist in harmony”. He once joked that future scholars from 2000 years later will discover a whole new culture from his buried works.

The artist attempts to present his works as if they were found objects, hence his creations are mostly spontaneous. Black clay and special black glaze are applied to simulate the color of traditional Japanese tea sets. Most of Koike’s sculptures are titled in codes — “BC” stands for “Black Clay”, and numbers are the date finished modeling - Koike avoids any narrative in the work titles, so that one could interpret his work from a more detached perspective purely on the basis of its physical form.

For this exhibition at The Fridge, among other pieces, Koike has worked on a large scale four panel painting titled BP240901 (Fish Scales and Tiger Dreams) which clearly illustrates a visual mix of historical references and motifs.

Koike's notable recent shows include Cadet Capela (Paris, 2023), OMURO MUSEUM (Mie, 2021), two-person Shows at Aishonanzuka Gallery with Jordy Kerwick (Hong Kong, 2024), and with Djordje Ozbolt (Hong Kong, 2023), as well as HAGD Contemporary with Henrik Godsk (Aalborg, 2023) . (click here for extended CV)

Sitting Tiger / 2024 / 410×318×22mm (frame size: 435×343×33mm) / acrylic on canvas Photo: Hayato Wakabayashi

$2300

$2300

Fish Scales and Tiger Dreams  / 2024 / 100 x 321.2cm / acrylic on canvas
$18000