Meguru Yamaguchi: In My Element

EVENT DESCRIPTION

This September, Sotheby’s is pleased to present the first solo exhibition of the New York-based Japanese artist Meguru Yamaguchi in Hong Kong. Titled ‘Meguru Yamaguchi: In My Element’, the selling exhibition opens from 7 – 19 September 2022 and will showcase 15 never-before-seen artworks from the Yamaguchi’s celebrated series including Möbius, Out of Bounds, Shadow Piece, Revisualize and Untitled series which blend elements of street culture, music, art and Japanese aesthetic sensibilities.

Inspired by Robert Glasper’s albums In My Element and Black Radio II, Yamaguchi’s artwork series takes reference from how various music genres integrates and transitions into new forms of music – an inspiration that he sees as a connection to his art which intertwines with street culture. Encompassing his intrinsic brushstroke style, Yamaguchi pushes the boundaries of painting and gestural abstraction in order to create new sculptural forms. Presenting a full spectrum of the artist’s most iconic series, the exhibition is set to introduce Yamaguchi to a wider audience in Asia.

Speaking about the exhibition, Meguru Yamaguchi expresses, “In My Element’ highlights my creative journey that stretches beyond a canvas frame, merging street culture with art. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to curate an exhibition that truly represents myself, with a mélange of all my styles and influences, and share my new works with Sotheby’s and the Hong Kong audience.”

Nick Buckley Wood, Private Sales Director, Sotheby’s Asia, comments, “We are very excited to present the first solo exhibition of Meguru Yamaguchi in Hong Kong. Yamaguchi takes a vibrant yet expressive artistic approach, swiftly traversing between Japanese subculture and popular culture. Created especially for this exhibition, the artist has put together the most popular series of his signature gestural brushstrokes, celebrating the tenacity of street culture which continues to reach new heights in the contemporary art market in Asia and around the world.”

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Meguru Yamaguchi was born in 1984 in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, and moved to New York in 2007, currently based in Brooklyn.

Yamaguchi focuses and pursues possibilities of brushstrokes’ expressions, one of the most fundamental elements of painting, which are seen in his signature work series Out of Bounds, with the conception of “transcending stereotypes, rules, borders and boundaries, expansion of painting”. He stopped using canvases that restrained the physical area for his strokes, and created an original method for materialising the unrestrained shapes of the brush strokes, enabling dynamic and sculpture work style.

Yamaguchi experienced the pivotal transition of Tokyo street culture from the 90’s to early 2000’s. He has collaborated with major brands representing American street culture, such as ALIFE, BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB, FTC, NIKE. The artist has also collaborated with other international brands such as ISSEI MIYAKE MEN, LEVI’s, OAKLEY, and UNIQLO.