Teppei Kaneuji

Plastic Barricade

May 23 - July 3, 2019

Jane Lombard Gallery is pleased to present, Plastic Barricade, an exhibition featuring new work by Kyoto-based artist, Teppei Kaneuji. Kaneuji investigates natural phenomena, history and mass consumption and his multidisciplinary practice incorporates sculpture, drawing, painting, and performance to explore themes of transformation. The exhibition highlights four distinctive bodies of work and marks the artist’s second solo show with the gallery. Plastic Barricade is on view from May 23 - July 3, 2019, with an opening reception taking place on May 23 from 6-8 pm.

Teppei Kaneuji takes an irreverent approach to sometimes challenging subject matter while  embracing playful methods of engagement with materiality: a process that reflects ideological conflicts between societal acceptance and social resistance. His dynamic recontextualizations are intended to examine the passage of time and environmental issues while suggesting critical analysis of consumerism.

A new large-scale installation from the HAKUCHIZU (White Map) series will be on view, a dioramic snow-covered landscape made of plastic toys, found objects, and everyday household items. The artist pours powder atop the structures and allows snow-like, poured formations to dust and “freeze” the materials in suspended animation, and Kaneuji’s architectural structures in this series have become increasingly elaborate over time.

Kaneuji references the visual language of Pop Art in his Mobiles series, swirling sculptures of isolated cosmetic advertisement imagery. The kinetic mobile cut-outs of glittery liquid shapes combine delight and precarity as they dance and twirl from the gallery walls and ceiling.  

The exhibition also features recent two-dimensional works from the ZONES series. Brilliant juxtapositions of form and material create an animated illusion of depth and movement when viewed from different angles. In his ZONES series, the artist explores formal techniques by flattening the linear space of the composition and intermingling reflective tape, painterly pops of color, geometric forms, and undulating, biomorphic shapes.

Throughout the Plastic Barricade exhibition Kaneuji demonstrates his ability to communicate themes that are simultaneously playful and menacing as he continually creates new meanings and visual associations for the viewer through unexpected combinations of disparate objects.

About Teppei Kaneuji Teppei Kaneuji (b. 1978, Japan) earned a graduate degree in sculpture at Kyoto City University of the Arts in 2003. Major solo exhibitions include Towering Something at Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, and K11, Shanghai (2013-14); Ghost in the City Lights at Eslite Gallery, Beijing (2011); POST-NOTHING at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney (2011); Recent Works Post Something at ShugoArts, Tokyo (2010); Melting City / Empty Forest at Yokohama Museum of Art (2009); and, Metamorphosis: Objects Today Vol. 6 at Gallery αM, Tokyo (2009). Major group exhibitions include: Roppongi Crossing 2013: Out of Doubt at Mori Art Museum (2013); Re: Quest―Japanese Contemporary Art Since the 1970s at Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul (2013); Sculpture by Other Means at One and J Gallery, Seoul (2012); Singapore Biennale at National Museum of Singapore, Singapore (2011); Ways of Worldmaking at The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2011); Akatsuka Fujio Manga University Exhibition at Kyoto International Manga Museum (2011); Platform 2009 Project by Invited Curators at KIMUSA, etc., Seoul (2009); Beautiful New World: Current Japanese Visual Culture at Beijing and Guangdong (2007). Teppei Kaneuji lives and works in Kyoto, Japan.