Hisae Ikenaga
Subtle Oblivion
Max Estrella has the pleasure to present on September 14th the exhibition Subtle Oblivion by Hisae Ikenaga. In this first show by the artist at the gallery, her work of the last two years will be presented, produced under the auspices of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.
After her recent exhibitions, Non-fonctionnel (Octave Cowbell, Metz, summer 2017) and her last show in Madrid Multifuncional/Colapso (Formato Cómodo, Madrid 2013), Hisae Ikenaga comes back to question the functionality of a series of objects, among which furniture abounds, to transform the different pieces and subject them to a new vision. Not accepting the established and suggesting other uses continues being the assertion of Ikenaga. This demand originates in the objectual but can extend to all that we are and all that surrounds us. Disconformity, imagination and a subtle humor keep characterizing her work.
A series of works made up from tubular metal chair fragments coming from a factory will be presented. Said fragments are accompanied by laminated plywood and various found objects. The union of all of these parts, recycled and merged, generate pieces which evoque the wooden laminated tubular furniture popular in the 1970s and that were part of the artist’s generation’s childhood and adolescence.
This works do not only refer to those years, they also allude to new production methods like the ready to assemble and the race to reduce costs to which we are subjected. Ikenaga, nevertheless, does not stop in this discourse and offers a twist by working on the recycling of recycling, transforming the low cost into unique objects, in works of art and thus depriving them of utility. The artist unfolds the pieces on the wall, making them lose their tridimensional state and transforming them in sleek works that reminisces those created by American Minimalists where -as surprising details, as subtle oblivion– everyday objects peek, all of them related to installation, exhibitions, and art collecting.
Hisae Ikenaga (Mexico, 1977) studied at Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado La Esmeralda in Mexico City, broadening her education in the University of Art and Design of Kyoto. In 2003, she studies a Masters Degree on Theory and Practice of Contemporary Visual Arts at the Fine Arts Faculty of Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She has had solo exhibitions in Matadero (Madrid, 2011), La Casa Encendida (Madrid 2009), Praxis International Art (New York, 2011) and has participated in shows in Germany (Kreativquartiee, Munich, 2014), Mexico (Museo del Chopo, Mexico City, 2011), Hong Kong (Para/Site Art Space, 2009), United States (Praxis Gallery, NY, 2008), Japan (Prinz Gallery, Kyoto, 2001), among others.
She has received numerous awards, like the First Prize in Generación 2008, Obra Social, Caja Madrid, Spain; Award in the I Bienal Azcapotzalco; the Foreign Studies Prize in Kyoto by CENART, 2000; and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, Biella, Italy.
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. Furnished line. 2015 -
. Subtle Oblivion (Diagonal wood-umbrella). 2016 -
. Subtle Oblivion (Red Walking Stick). 2016 -
. Subtle Oblivion (Yellow T-Shirt). 2016 -
. Subtle oblivion (White, wood, keys). 2016 -
. Subtle Oblivion (Chrome-cherry-wood-level). 2015 -
. Subtle Oblivion (Chrome-Orange-Pliers). 2018 -
. Subtle Oblivion (Green-Blue-Grey-Tape measure). 2018 -
. Subtle Oblivion (White-Blue Diagonal-Grey-Cleaning cloth). 2015 -
. Tubular II. 2015