Ai Yamaguchi: Oyasumi

AI YAMAGUCHI: Oyasumi

October 1^st - December 3^rd, 2004

SHAHEEN Modern and Contemporary Art is delighted to announce Oyasumi, an exhibition of new work by 27 year-old Tokyo based painter Ai Yamaguchi.  There will be an opening reception for the artist on October 1^st, from 5:30 - 8:00 p.m.  The exhibition will continue through December 3rd.

For her first U.S. exhibition outside of New York or Los Angeles, Yamaguchi will transform SHAHEEN's exhibition space into a sprawling narrative installation of paintings, works on paper and wall drawings.  Entitled Oyasumi, the exhibition will constitute the latest installment in Yamaguchi's ongoing chronicling of the lives of nine young girls living and working as courtesans at Togue no Chaya (The Brothel on the Mountain Pass), a fictional, unlicensed brothel of the artist's imaginative conjuring.  The paintings and works on paper that comprise Oyasumi ( -- "good night" in Japanese) will coalesce into a narrative depiction of Togue no Chaya's nine young residents preparing for bed, falling asleep, dreaming, and eventually waking up to a new day.  Precariously perched between the conflicting spheres of their adult oriented professions and their own adolescence, Yamaguchi's fictitious young girls convey both child-like melancholy and industrious resolve.  Each one possesses a distinct personality and demeanor, which continuously unfold and evolve in concert with Yamaguchi's ongoing visual depiction of their lives.  Along the way, the artist explores issues of innocence and innocence lost, sexual identity, and her relationship to her own body.

Incorporating prevalent characteristics of both traditional and contemporary Japanese image and art production, and keenly observant of the longstanding and ever-evolving exchange of artistic and cultural influence between east and west, Yamaguchi's work offers a sophisticated synthesis of history, personal experience, and fictional narrative.  Visual hallmarks of Japanese scroll and screen painting, and prevalent characteristics of traditional Japanese Ukiyo-E woodblock printmaking blend with elements of contemporary Japanese illustration and animation in the artist's seamless visual fields.  Yamaguchi's lush, exquisitely executed paintings on canvas and paper display a sharp attention to, and exceptional technical facility for rendering detail and texture that derives from her academic background in textile design.