YOD Gallery is delighted to present "Hiroshi Shinno: The Laboratory of Nature." This is the latest body of work in Shinno's series of Ikimono (life) sculptures. This marks Shinno's second exhibition with the gallery and an important departure from the style of presentation which he focuses on individuality of creatures. 

As he is introduced in the first solo exhibition, Shinnno uses materials from nature which he picked one by one from the location where he resides. Recently, he moved his studio from the residential area to the countryside, near the border between Kyoto and Nara prefecture. The new works in this exhibition are greatly influenced by this change of environment. The selected pieces of nature,such as flowers, plants, seeds and leaves, are carefully cast using synthetic resin. Shinno constructs his sculptures with these small parts in order to embody his imagination in the form of Ikimono creatures. One could say they are the embodiment of the real-world and fantasy by virtue of the unworldly beauty and precise craftsmanship in the artwork.

The form of Ikimono has further developed from a single beetle-like creature to a collective entity of miniscule lives, titled the cluster of life, which is becoming more abstract form, harder to identify with animals in the real-world. The experience of looking at a number of clusters flating in the air is more like seening living cells under a microscope. Shinno's relationship with nature goes back to his childhood and it is the source of his creativity. Motivated by the deep understanding of man's involvement with nature, his work seems to have developed further in the direction of trying to capture the nucleus of life.

The title of the exhibition, "The Laboratory of Nature", represents his love for nature and the laboratory, a space in which his creations are seen. This exhibition promises to show the potential of this talented young artist.

*image (left(
Hiroshi Shinno
The cluster of life
14 x 14 x 14cm
courtesy of the artist and YOD Gallery