ANTEROOM TRANSMISSION Vol. 4
- Fade In / Fade Out
2024/12/7 -2025/2/2
Exhibition
We are pleased to announce that the HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO is presenting a three-person exhibition, Fade In / Fade Out, featuring the works of Miwako NAKAMURA, LANP and Dirk MERTIN. It is the fourth volume of ANTEROOM TRANSMISSION, an art project that aims to support and train young artists, launched at the HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO in 2021.
Miwako NAKAMURA extracts forms and constructions she encounters in everyday life by drawing existing spaces from a single point of view. She treats them as “the overlaps of things”, and through reconstructing such “overlaps” she develops two-dimensional works with motifs like a blank space left after something has been cut out.
LANP creates works on canvas and murals representing archetypal Japanese landscapes and figures, which seem to obtain some futuristic narratives. In addition to his activities as a member of the hip-hop crew, “WARAJI”, he has been expanding his field of expression as a manga artist in recent years.
Based in Bremen, Germany, Dirk MERTIN delves into the possibilities of graffiti on canvas. His works include a series in which lines and objects emerge like symbols. Since co-launching a magazine, Aerosol Attack in 1989, he has been collecting information and carrying out research on hip-hop scenes around the world.
In this exhibition, we interpret cultures like BMX, breaking dance and graffiti that are rooted and have grown in play in the urban space as “language”, and roadways, buildings and graphic designs that construct the city as “letters” inscribing the culture and history of the place. With the works of three artists born between the 1970s and 90s who differ in their approaches and fields of activity, the exhibition explores the multi-layered context in the contemporary era, crossing scales such as suburbs, cities and national borders.
Finally, while the project aims to train young artists, we would like to review its existing framework and nominate artists with less than ten years of experience, regardless of age or educational background. By also inviting a mid-career artist and bringing all these creators together, we intend to open up new possibilities and further develop it as an art project.
We earnestly look forward to welcoming you.
ANTEROOM TRANSMISSION Vol. 4 - Fade In / Fade Out Dates: Sat, 7 December 2024 - Sun, 2 February 2025 Time: 10am - 8pm Venue: HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO l GALLERY 9.5 Address: 7, Higashi-Kujo Akita-cho, Minami-ku, Kyoto Phone: 075-681-5656 Exhibiting artists: Miwako NAKAMURA, LANP, Dirk MERTIN Recommenders: Yuma HARADA (UMA / design farm), BAKIBAKI, Yasutaka TOYOKAWA(HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO) Curator: Masako UEDA(MISENOMA) Graphic design: Daiki GOTO (Foot Print) Website design: Chihiro SUYAMA English translation: Nozomi MATSUYAMA Exhibition installation: Jun WATANABE（J.WAT） Photographic documentation: Takuya MATSUMI Contact: contact@misenoma.com (Curation), info@hotel-anteroom.com (PR: Kumasaki) Opening reception: Details will be announced later.
Exhibition Artists｜出展作家
Recommenders｜ 推薦者
ExhibitionArtists｜出展作家
中村 美和子
NAKAMURA Miwako
She accumulates drawings from the scenes that she accidentally encounters in everyday life and then develops these motifs into paintings. Some of her works are based on the initial concept of “a sticker-like painting”, which refers to traditional Japanese painting, composed in parallel. In one series, she applies many layers of paint and polishes them, giving the diagrammatic pieces a thick quality. Through these projects, her progress in expression continues.
Miwako NAKAMURA is a painter based in Saga City. In 2019, she completed a graduate degree in Regional Design in Art and Economics at Saga University. Her recent projects include a solo exhibition, The Scenes of the Commonplace (Ao-Hata Bookstore), a three-person exhibition, i don’t remember that paper (PERHAPS), and a solo exhibition, Trees That Have Been Cut (SAGA-DAI-HATSU ART PROJECT). She also participates in a podcast programme, 30-Minute Walk (SHOTOU).
Recommenders｜推薦者
原田 祐馬（UMA / design farm）
HARADA Yuma
The works of Miwako NAKAMURA are white. There is something in white. Or there is something white drawn on the wood, sometimes with black lines. I came to think that what’s drawn there can function like a window to peep at someone’s life history and one’s own. When I look at Miwako NAKAMURA's work, it reminds me of the feeling I had when I saw Henri MATISSE's cut-outs. On the one hand, as I get closer to her work, I notice that so much paint is layered that it looks delicious like a Boules de Neige, like a painting, like a Kagami-mochi (rice cake decoration for Japanese New Year), or like a sculpture. A certain contour elicits a line that goes back and forth between abstract and concrete, and the work with such lines uncovers the daily life and experiences of the person standing in front of her painting. With expectation for something white.
Originally from Suita City, Osaka, Yuma HARADA graduated from the Inter Medium Institute as a 7th year student in 2005 after completing his degree in Architecture, Design Course, Faculty of Art at Kyoto Seika University. Having worked under the artist, Noboru TSUBAKI, he founded the UMA / design farm. He is also the co-director of a publishing company, Dokusha. His other positions include distinguished visiting professor at Nagoya University of the Arts, judge of the Good Design Award, communications director for Hanazono Kintetsu Liners, and executive committee of DESIGNEAST. Since Yasuo HARIMA, board chairman of Tanpopo-No-Ye described him as “a designer who works on different projects with a cross-disciplinary approach and circulates them to present something new,” HARADA has continued his activities keeping this in mind. He travels all over Japan, valuing fieldwork and actual scenes. He owns a dog named Wakame, which means seaweed.
ExhibitionArtists｜出展作家
LANP
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LANP is a painter and member of WARAJI, a hip-hop crew based in Osaka. He organises an event called “Air Controller” at Hattori Ryokuchi Park in his hometown. His artworks have been distributed to some artists, apparel brands, companies, and mural projects. Also as a manga artist, he will resume working on his series, Anoyo De Man-nen (Day After the Life) this autumn.
Recommenders｜推薦者
BAKIBAKI
Based in Yodogawa-ku, Osaka, the same area as mine, LANP has worked closely with me since he participated in the mural project, Yodokabe (Yodo-Wall). I see him as a painter who is keen to polish up his style from canvas to mural. His work includes attributes, such as gradations that dissolve boundaries, snapshots of a face without expression, manga without dialogue, and a unique sense of creating characters that seem to come out of nowhere. While these attributes can be seen as missing elements, which I suppose is the artist’s intention, they stimulate the audience’s imagination and his works have a mysterious quality of universality. I suggest that the consistent taste that links them all is their “soft and soothing vibes”. Although he is perhaps best known for the cover art of music released by the hip-hop crew, "WARAJI", I would like people to experience his original artworks with a solid touch of painting.
Born in Osaka in 1978, BAKIBAKI began his career as the live painting duo, “DOPPEL” in 2001 while studying at Kyoto City University of Arts. He embodies the fusion of tradition and street culture with his “signature” work, BAKI pattern, which modernises ancient Japanese patterns. Although his activities are rooted in live painting in music scenes related to club culture, his main focus is now on large-scale exterior murals or public art. With the 2021 launch of the mural project, Yodokabe (Yodo-Wall) based around Juso, Osaka, he has been contributing to the promotion of mural culture in Japan, as well as to the revitalisation of the community in the run-up to Expo 2025 Osaka.
ExhibitionArtists｜出展作家
ディルク・マーティン
DIRK Mertin
The artist, Dirk MERTIN, also known as dee one, is showing his new art series, Modus 83 in Kyoto in 2024. In this series, he takes a close look at the classic graffiti letters of his basis.
Abstract letters turn into shapes, surfaces and design elements. Reduced colours underline Dirk MERTIN’s work.
His original works will be presented in various sizes on canvas and paper.
Modus 83 explores the roots of graffiti. Letters, tags and stylistic elements from the past days are reinterpreted and placed into a modern context.
The special display of digital fine art prints from his Fragments series from 2018 to 2024 will also arrive in Kyoto.
Born in Bremerhaven in 1971, Dirk MERTIN has been a pioneer of the German graffiti scene since 1983. His first exhibition took place in 1987. From then on, he has presented his works in various countries, such as South Africa and the USA. He has been living and working as a graphic designer and illustrator in Bremen since 2001. In 2016, he opened his tattoo studio, Polarink. Dirk MERTIN's Bremen studio is where all his art projects proceed from conception to final realisation.
Recommenders｜推薦者
豊川 泰行
TOYOKAWA Yasutaka
I was introduced to the German graffiti artist, Dirk MERTIN by a mutual acquaintance. As he was thinking of planning an exhibition in Japan, I recommended that he participate in ANTEROOM TRANSMISSION as a guest artist. I hoped inviting him to this project, which aims to train a younger generation, would encourage young artists and creators. I am excited to see how the exhibition will unfold with these three artists, who work in different environments in Germany and Japan but have in common that they create works influenced by the scenes of the city and everyday life.
Administrator, HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO/ Curator, GALLERY 9.5
Visiting Researcher, Ritsumeikan Center for Game Studies
Yasutaka TOYOKAWA promotes projects that convey the current state of video game culture through his work at the hotel's art gallery and various events.
His projects include curating an exhibition of contemporary art and indie games and presenting concept rooms with game motifs at the hotel.
He endeavours to expand the territory of art, organising exhibitions by up-and-coming illustrators or performance groups and disseminating information about the leading artists and creators for the next generation.