Konrad Fischer

Yuji Takeoka

17 Jan - 08 Mar 2014

© Yuji Takeoka
ohne Titel, 1989
glass, copper
46 x 81 x 81 cm
YUJI TAKEOKA
Museo Site
17 January - 8 March 2014

Konrad Fischer Galerie Berlin is pleased to announce the opening of the second solo exhibition of new works by Yuji Takeoka (*1946) on January 17, 2014, 6pm - 9pm.

Born and raised in Kyoto, Japan, Yuji Takeoka studied in the 1970’s at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Here he had unique access to contemporary sculpture and started combining its tradition with his native Japan’s.

From the 1980’s on, Takeoka has maintained an interest in forms relating to contemporary ways of exhibiting art. Pedestals, vitrines, and frames are repeatedly present in the oeuvre of Takeoka. They are relieved from their usual function and appear highly aestheticized in his work.

Flawless and oftentimes with glossy, polished surfaces, Takeoka’s objects explore the borders between art, architecture and design. But they don’t just repeat the gesture of Duchamp’s readymades as the complex references in his works are always bound to aesthetics.

In a new work (Site Case I, 2012) Takeoka has a square of plaster removed from the exhibition wall. This square is then precisely covered by a plexiglas box. In contrast to Michael Asher’s work from the 1970’s who had the plaster removed from all walls and ceilings of the exhibition space, Takeoka’s work does not aim to point out the context in a critical way by making it visible. Instead he transforms this context into an aesthetic object which allows the conscious experience of the space between the wall and the viewer.

In 1992 Takeoka was included in documenta 9 in Kassel. Recently his works have been exhibited at the Joseph Albers Museum in Bottrop (Museo, 2011) and at the Gerhard Marcks Haus in Bremen (At square Zero of Sculpture, 2012). Between 1995 and 2012 Takeoka was a professor at the Academy of Arts in Bremen.
 

Tags: Gerhard Marcks, Yuji Takeoka