Naoki Onogawa: POWER

About

Term
-Gallery
February 28–March 10, 2024

-Online
January 25-March 10, 2024

Open
Wednesday to Sunday, National holidays
11:00-18:00

Special Open
February 29th, March 7th
11:00-21:00

Venue
Picaresque Art Gallery
4-54-7, Yoyogi, Shibuya ward, Tokyo, JAPAN
Google Map

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Naoki Onogawa

Born in Tokyo, 1991.

Onogawa creates “origami crane tree” series by folding approximately 1.5 cm paper, and putting it on tree shaped sculptures which is created by the artist himself, as a leaf.

Since he showed his first “Crane Tree” at the “3331 Chiyoda Arts Festival 2013 Scholarship Exhibition”, he has been getting recognition. Furthered by holding exhibitions at art fairs, galleries and department stores all over Japan.

In 2019, he joined the Seattle Art Fair and opened his own museum in Shodo-shima Island.

Onogawa feels that the process of folding origami cranes is similar to the solitary ritual of prayer. After the 3/11 earthquake in Japan, he focused on his art work and visiting Rikuzentakata, Iwate, gave the artist a deep focus on “life”.

“Being alive” and “praying” are core human concepts, Onogawa inquires how to be the appreciator through creating the “Crane Tree” in silence. Onogawa’s conversation with “life” continues.

Artist Statement

-My Journey with Origami Cranes –
I have long found the practice of folding origami (folding paper) cranes for the sake of peace to be a peculiar custom.
I often hear people refer to origami cranes as a symbol of peace. Since the end of World War II, people from all around are said to ship paper cranes to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even now, apparently people continue to send exorbitant amounts – several tons – of cranes to both cities every year. What strikes me as odd about these paper cranes is how they function as a vessel for people’s unrequited emotions – and how their makers, almost by habit or instinct, choose to fold them over and over again.
I felt that war and peace were concepts too tightly linked to these cranes. But at that moment, I found them in a place untouched by these notions. This is what shocked me – for some reason, I felt like it made sense for them to be there. It was like witnessing the result of a desolate ritual – where people channeled their unsettled feelings into these cranes. And here they exist – spirited with prayers that they would go back and forward to and from a world beyond here. In reflection, I feel that something about origami cranes is sacred – that within them, they harbor something of mystery, of the mystic. And these are the truth in the concept of “beauty” that I have faith in.
I believe that each person familiar with cranes has their own history with them. How each person feels about them and holds these cranes in their mind is unique, but it is my hope that my works allow for new dialogue. Through that dialogue, it is my hope that there is something, whatever it is, that stirs the heart of the viewer.

History

Museum
2019 “Naoki Onogawa Museum” Kagawa

Exhibitions
2013 “3331 Chiyoda Arts Festival 2013 Scholarship Exhibition” 3331 Arts Chiyoda
2016 “So far, from here” SEIBU SHIBUYA, SOGO
2019 “Art Fair Tokyo” Tokyo
2019 “square” H.P.FRANCE WINDOW GALLERY Marunouchi
2020 “Full bloom” Ginza Mitsukoshi
2021 “folklore” Setouchi City Museum of Art
2021 “Naoki Onogawa Solo Exhibition” Matsuzakaya Nagoya store
2021 “Pray” Ippodo Gallery Tokyo-New York
2022 “Four seasons color” TENMAYA Okayama Main Store

Public Works
2017 “CHRISTIE’S Magazine” Yusaku Maezawa : The record-breaking art collector
2017 “The Art of J” JAPAN AIRLINES Web movie titled “Privacy”
2018 “Journey to the World of HOKUSAI – The Art of J -” New York

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