Maki Fine Arts is pleased to present (ZOO), a solo show by Kazuhito Tanaka. Additional works by the artist will also be shown starting September 8 at the art space SUNDAY (2-7-12 Ikejiri, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo).

Born 1973, Kazuhito Tanaka has pursued deep into the boundary between abstract and concrete and has showcased works revolving around photographic works. He is the recipient of the 2011 TOKYO FRONTLINE PHOTO AWARD and in 2012 served as the planning committee executive for the artist-led group exhibition Her Name is Abstra held in Kyoto. His works are also included in the amana photo collection. (Zoo) will showcase his much-awaited new works since his last solo show with Maki Fine Arts in 2012, Untitled Composition. For the new (ZOO) series, the artist reconstructs photos capturing the animals and human visitors seen at the zoo. The original photos are turned into abstract by intricately cutting and pasting the medium over and over again. In his installation, visitors will see a new form of abstract expression in these photographic works that traverse between the digital and analog worlds.

When I was young, I visited the zoo often. In my memory, rather than remembering each individual animal, I recollect the zoo as one abstract aggregate of a memory that includes various animals along with an odd assortment of people watching those animals. The (ZOO) series is a re-inspection that I conducted today of my initial visual memory of the past. The exhibition will include abstract photographs, which began as simple photos showing the animals of various shapes and colors along with the humans watching them, and then reconstructing those photos by adding mosaic using a computer. Multiple methods were used in creating the works for this show, as it will also include collage work where the photo mediums have been layered manually. By actively making the uniquely intense and specific world of the zoo abstract, the concept of the zoo is expanded. This concept is then overlapped with today's virtual world where an enormous amount of information repeats the complicated cycle of gathering and dispersing. My goal is to acquire a panoramic eye, so that I may redefine the actual.
-Kazuhito Tanaka

In the simultaneous exhibition held at SUNDAY, Tanaka's best known series blocks, a creation that began in 2008 turning videos of toy blocks into abstract, as well as new works from the same series will be shown.

Courtesy of Maki Fine Arts