GAGOSIAN GALLERY

31 October 2013

PRESS RELEASE
GAGOSIAN GALLERY
7/F PEDDER BUILDING
12 PEDDER STREET
CENTRAL HONG KONG
HOURS:

T. +852.2151.0555
F. +852.2151.0853
TueSat 10:00am6:00pm

TETSUYA ISHIDA
Thursday, 7 NovemberSaturday, 21 December 2013

Opening reception: Thursday, November 7th, from 6:00 to 8:00pm

At first, it was a self-portrait. I tried to make myselfmy weak self, my pitiful self, my anxious
selfinto a joke or something funny that could be laughed atIt was sometimes seen as a
parody or satire referring to contemporary people. As I continued to think about this, I expanded
it to include consumers, city-dwellers, workers, and the Japanese people.
Tetsuya Ishida

Gagosian Hong Kong is pleased to announce an exhibition of paintings by Tetsuya Ishida, the
gallerys first presentation of his work. This is the first exhibition of Ishidas paintings outside of
Japan.
Ishida came of age as a painter during Japans lost decade, a time of nationwide economic
recession that lasted through the 1990s. In his afflictive paintings, he captured the feelings of
hopelessness, claustrophobia, and emotional isolation that burdened him and dominated
Japanese society. From his early career until his untimely death in 2005, Ishida provided vivid
allegories of the challenges to Japanese life and morale in paintings and graphic works charged
with dark Orwellian absurdity.
In nightmarish scenes, suited figures made in Ishida's own likeness but possessing machine or
animal parts are depicted being boxed and repaired, like helpless objects. Foreground and
background are rendered in equally meticulous detail and this intricate compression of layers
intensifies the sense of entrapment. The stoic male subjects seem accustomed to their cyborg
limbs and dreary surroundings as they carry on in their shared routine. Some men are fully
merged with household objects, reduced to little more than functional but inanimate tools and
furniture.

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7/F PEDDER BUILDING

12 PEDDER STREET

CENTRAL, HONG KONG

HONGKONG@GAGOSIAN.COM

T. +852 2151 0555

WWW.GAGOSIAN.COM

F. +852 2151 0853

GAGOSIAN GALLERY
Waiting for a Chance (1999) depicts young men in a hospital room, anxiously awaiting their fate
as they rest on scrapped auto bodies in place of hospital beds. The striking allegory Descendant
(1999), also set in a hospital, portrays a group of surgeons surrounding a child who has been
birthed by prehistoric reptiles. In Exercise Equipment (1997), a recurring suited subject is
pictured running on a treadmill, monitored by men positioned to hook his ankles should he slow
down. These disturbing scenes are consistent with the surreal melancholy of contemporary
Japanese authors such as Mahoko Yoshimoto and Haruki Murakami, whose novels propose a
society of individuals debilitated by neurosis and traumatic dysfunction.

Tetsuya Ishida was born in Yaizu, Shizuoka, Japan in 1973, and died in Tokyo in 2005. Solo
museum exhibitions include Sumpu Museum, Shizuoka, Japan (2006); Tetsuya Ishida: Canvas of
Sadness, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (2007); CB Collection, Tokyo (2007); and Tetsuya
Ishida: Self-portraits, Nerima Art Museum, Tokyo (2008). Selected group exhibitions include
Asian Avant-garde, Christies London (1998); dis-communication, Sungkok Art Museum, Seoul
(2007); Chaosmos 07: In the Face of Sadness, Sakura City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan (2007);
and Tetsuya Ishida and Shizuoka-related Artists, Hamamatsu Municipal Museum of Art,
Shizuoka (2009). A survey exhibition of Ishidas work, Notes, Evidence of Dreams, was on view
at Ashikaga Museum of Art this fall, and will travel to Hiratsuka Museum of Art; Tonami Art
Museum, Toyama; and Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (through 2014).
For further information please contact the gallery at hongkong@gagosian.com or at
+852.2151.0555. All images are subject to copyright. Gallery approval must be granted prior to
reproduction.
Please join the conversation with Gagosian Gallery on Twitter (@GagosianAsia) and on
Instagram (@gagosiangallery) via the hashtag #TetsuyaIshida.

Image: Waiting for a Chance, 1999, acrylic on board, 57 5/16 x 81 1/8 inches (145.6 x 206 cm) Estate of Tetsuya Ishida

Gagosian Gallery was established in 1980 by Larry Gagosian.

7/F PEDDER BUILDING

12 PEDDER STREET

CENTRAL, HONG KONG

HONGKONG@GAGOSIAN.COM

T. +852 2151 0555

WWW.GAGOSIAN.COM

F. +852 2151 0853