Tokyo Gallery + BTAP (Beijing) is pleased to present "Genre Crossing", an exhibition by fashion designer Junko Koshino and contemporary artist Go Yayanagi starting on August 8th (Sun).
Junko Koshino was born in Osaka. She enrolled in the design department at Bunka Fashion College, and at the age of 19 became the youngest ever recipient of the So-en prize, a prestigious award for emerging designers. After graduating, she showed her work for the first time at Paris Fashion Week in 1978. Since then, she has exhibited her collections in various cities and countries worldwide, including New York (at the Metropolitan Museum of Art), Vietnam, Cuba and Myanmar. In Beijing, Koshino previously staged the largest fashion show in China at the Beijing Hotel in 1985, a sports and fashion show at the city's Workers' Indoor Arena in 1988, and the "Koshino Junko Design" exhibition at the Museum of Chinese History in 1992. Currently, Koshino is active in a wide variety of fields, creating stage costumes for operas and musicals, sports uniforms and designs for interiors, in addition to her diverse work as an active proponent of international cultural exchange. Her efforts were recognized in 2006 when she was awarded the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity by the Italian government, and again in 2008 when she was appointed a Yokoso! Japan ambassador by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for her contributions towards the promotion of Japan as a tourist destination. She was also designated an ambassador for the Shanghai World Expo by the city of Shanghai this year.
Go Yayanagi was born in Obihiro, Hokkaido in 1933. After graduating from Obihiro Agricultural High School in 1951, he traveled to Sao Paolo, Brazil in 1957, where he held a solo exhibition of his work at the city's Museum of Modern Art. Since then Yayanagi has shown his work actively in various other countries and traveled widely around the world to places like Africa, Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong. In 1965 he moved to Paris and studied copperplate printmaking for 3 years with the master printer S. W. Hayter at his Atelier 17. Yayanagi has presented his work at numerous exhibitions both abroad and in Japan. He was selected to represent Japan at the 11th Sao Paolo International Biennial in 1971. In Japan, he showed his work at the “Geijutsu e no Chosen” exhibition held at the Ikeda Museum of 20th Century Art in 1981, and "Distant Cosmology: 40 Years of Go Yayanagi," held at the Hokkaido Obihiro Museum of Art in 1992. Working across a diverse range of fields including oil painting, printmaking, murals for public buildings and design, Yayanagi is an artist who continues to produce work at an international level.
The collaborative relationship between Koshino and Yayanagi began when they met at Yayanagi's solo show "A day, a lifetime; the vestiges of 365 days. And now," held at Tokyo Gallery + BTAP in June 2009. By incorporating patterns taken from Yayanagi’s prints into her clothing designs, Koshino has been creating collaborative works that have been unveiled at various fashion shows and events, including "Junko Koshino Collection: A Moment" (Grand Hyatt, Tokyo) and "Junko Koshino Beijing Fashion Show 25th Anniversary" (Great Hall of the People, Beijing).
This exhibition showcases pieces from Koshino's collection that resulted from her collaboration with Yayanagi, as well as a selection of Yayanagi's own paintings and prints. Yayanagi's print works dating from the 1970s have been transformed into textile designs and given a new lease of life in three-dimensional form. This mutual, effortless "genre crossing" between the realms of art and fashion, previously distinguished from each other as separate disciplines, represents a new, innovative direction in the careers of these two accomplished creators.
We hope you take this opportunity to view the exhibition and look forward to your visit.
