22 January – 20 February 2010
SCAI THE BATHHOUSE (Yanaka)
Nena 2009 Lime wood, acrylic paint 53.2 x 16.5 x 14.3 cm
Small wooden figures around 60 cm high, each impeccably carved and colored, stand on the floor of the high-ceilinged gallery. At his first solo show in his home country, the London-based artist who already enjoys critical acclaim in North America and Europe is showing four new works: miniature visages of characters he met on London’s heavily immigrant-populated, now-chic Brick Lane, attempting to assert their individuality in a foreign land. What gives these tiny figures their immense sense of presence? Most likely the results of a production process which, through weeks of observing the subject, captures the personality behind the appearance.