Yoichi Umetsu: Crystal Palace

 

Born in 1982, the artist Yoichi Umetsu focuses primarily on painting while also engaging in a wide range of other activities. These include, for example, creating self-portraits in which Umetsu dresses up as figures in the works of Seiki Kuroda and other pioneering Western-style painters from the modern era, and forming a collective called Parplume, which is rooted in the dream of integrating art-making with daily life. In recent years, Umetsu has expanded his practice to include ceramics and prints as a reflection of the industrial structure that underlies art production. This exhibition presents an overview of Umetsu work since the mid-2000s while also considering the fundamental question, “What does it mean to make things?” This promises to trigger an essential reconsideration of art as something that remains impartial to both aesthetics and politics.