One of Japan's most active and recognized artists both at home and abroad, Odani Motohiko (born 1972) studied sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts before launching a career that now encompasses media as varied as sculpture, photography and video. The artist's work tends to arise out of his interest in the sensations of fear, pain, unease and touch. Giving physical and sculptural expression to abstract sensations and psychological conditions, he forces us to face phenomena that we would otherwise forgot or avoid. A dress made of hair, an animal fitted with movement restraints, a heteromorphic young girl, a horse-mounted samurai in a death-like state: with their juxtaposition of images, Odani's works never permit a single, easy interpretation. Existing on the edges between beauty and ugliness, life and death, the sacred and the secular, Odani's creative work possesses a slightly disconcerting attraction capable of stimulating the viewer's subconscious and sensibilities.

At the same time, Odani possesses his own critical view of sculpture as a medium. Keeping an eye on its long tradition in the West and the reception it has received in Japan, Odani has also sought to reinvent the medium for his own time and place. The artist's approach is influenced by his uniquely Japanese experience of growing up in Kyoto surrounded by sculptural representations of Buddha and also in his own long-held interest in figurines and Japanese subcultures. Odani's unique creative output and aesthetic sense has won him fans internationally. Alongside Sone Yutaka, he represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2003. He has also appeared in the Istanbul Biennale and the Gwanju Biennale.

Bringing together new and early works from the artist's career, this exhibition will form a complex sensory zone within the museum, stimulating visitors in multiple ways. New works on themes of interest to the artist at the moment, such as gravity and physical elements like fluids and gases, will be shown for the first time. Join us as we experience Odani Motohiko's pursuit of a new type of artistic expression, which exists along the borders between the concrete and the abstract, the traditional and the new and the physical and the spiritual.   

Odani Motohiko

Born 1972 in Kyoto. Odani received a BFA in sculpture (1995) and an MFA (1997) from Tokyo University of the Arts. He has been included in numerous international exhibitions, including the Lyon Biennale (2000), the Istanbul Biennale (2001) and the Gwanju Biennale (2002). His major solo exhibitions include “Modification” (Kirin Plaza Osaka, 2004). His group exhibitions include “Ground Zero Japan” (Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, 1999), “Skin of/in Contemporary Art” (National Museum of Art, Osaka, 2007), “Doro Doro, Doron: The Uncanny World in Folk and Contemporary Art in Asia” (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, etc., 2009) Curated by: Araki Natsumi (Curator, Mori Art Museum)

Image: SP2 'New Born' Viper A, Odani Motohiko, Photo, 67 x 28 x 18 cm, 2007