BIGEI

SHUMOKU GALLERY is pleased to present a two-person exhibition featuring photographer Tenmei Kanō and doll artist Simon Yotsuya.

Tenmei Kanō was born in 1942 in Nagoya. After graduating from Nagoya Municipal Industrial High School, he studied under local photographer Tōichi Ogawa. He moved to Tokyo and began working as an assistant to photographer Takashi Kijima in 1962. The following year, he became a freelance photographer and went on to release numerous important photo collections, working across various genres including advertising photography and portraiture. This marks his third exhibition at SHUMOKU GALLERY, following Still Life at 18 (2015) and New York 1969 (2016).

Simon Yotsuya was born in Tokyo in 1944. From a young age, he created dolls and also worked as a singer and actor. Around 1967, he began appearing in the Situation Theatre, founded by Jūrō Kara, performing female roles, and continued until around 1971, becoming widely recognized as a popular actor in the theater world. In 1972, the exhibition Simon Yotsuya as Photographed by Ten Photographers, including Tenmei Kanō, was held to great acclaim. In 1973, he held his first solo exhibition Eve of the Past and Future at Aoki Gallery and began his full-fledged career as a doll artist specializing in ball-jointed dolls. Since then, he has produced many significant works while continuing his dual career as an actor and doll artist.

The prints featured in this exhibition capture Simon Yotsuya in 2016—photographed by Tenmei Kanō for the first time in 44 years. In these works, Yotsuya, who recently returned to the stage as an actor, appears both with a cool, elegant presence in his natural form and in flamboyant costumes exuding dramatic allure. Kanō, known for drawing out the potent energy of his subjects, delivers a powerful photographic statement through this session.

In addition, the exhibition will feature selected doll works by Simon Yotsuya spanning from the 1970s to the 2000s.

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