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Exhibitions
Toshio Shibata - Geometrical Drawing
2024/10/26 Sat - 12/8 Sun
October 26 – December 8, 2024
Wednesday–Sunday: 1PM – 6PM
*From November 7–10 during Art Week Tokyo 2024, open from 10AM
Closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, and public holidays
Wednesday–Sunday: 1PM – 6PM
*From November 7–10 during Art Week Tokyo 2024, open from 10AM
Closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, and public holidays
Opening Reception: 2024年10月26日（土）18:00-20:00
Introduction
We are pleased to present "Geometrical Drawing", Toshio Shibata's second solo exhibition at POETIC SCAPE, open from October 26 to December 8, 2024. The exhibition will also participate in Art Week Tokyo 2024.
In the exhibition DAY FOR NIGHT held at POETIC SCAPE last year, we presented monochrome works photographed by Shibata between 1980 and 1988, after his return from his study abroad in Belgium. Shibata began his journey with night photography and gradually explored daytime photography as well, as he sought the direction of his future work. During this period, he happened to photograph a concrete block by the roadside leading to a dam construction site, which sparked his interest in photographing structures like dams, retaining walls, and bridges.
In 1986, Shibata exhibited a series of works under the title Geo-Metry-Graphy (exhibition at ZEIT-FOTO SALON). Named after a term Shibata coined, this series explored the intersection of geography, geometry, and photography. Shibata stated that the works for this year’s exhibition reminded him of Geo-Metry-Graphy back in 1986, especially because of the resemblance in their geometric compositions.
For the exhibition at ZEIT-FOTO SALON, Shibata wrote, “In the daytime works of this exhibition, unlike the nighttimes, darkness does not hide the unnecessary parts well. I have tried to give form to the undesirable landscapes that clearly appear, thereby giving it a sense of imagination.”
“I began photographing landscapes, with an emphasis on maintaining a skeletal framework - an underlying structure on the screen, aiming to capture forms and objects from a neutral perspective. It is not an introduction or description of a particular view, nor a photo from a vista point*, but the process of cutting out a particular scene from an arbitrary landscape in front of me, in my own way. This idea has persisted in my work even as my technique transitioned from black-and-white to color photography.”
-Toshio Shibata (*a designated spot providing a scenic view)
The show will feature approximately 20 works, most of which have never been seen before.
In the exhibition DAY FOR NIGHT held at POETIC SCAPE last year, we presented monochrome works photographed by Shibata between 1980 and 1988, after his return from his study abroad in Belgium. Shibata began his journey with night photography and gradually explored daytime photography as well, as he sought the direction of his future work. During this period, he happened to photograph a concrete block by the roadside leading to a dam construction site, which sparked his interest in photographing structures like dams, retaining walls, and bridges.
In 1986, Shibata exhibited a series of works under the title Geo-Metry-Graphy (exhibition at ZEIT-FOTO SALON). Named after a term Shibata coined, this series explored the intersection of geography, geometry, and photography. Shibata stated that the works for this year’s exhibition reminded him of Geo-Metry-Graphy back in 1986, especially because of the resemblance in their geometric compositions.
For the exhibition at ZEIT-FOTO SALON, Shibata wrote, “In the daytime works of this exhibition, unlike the nighttimes, darkness does not hide the unnecessary parts well. I have tried to give form to the undesirable landscapes that clearly appear, thereby giving it a sense of imagination.”
“I began photographing landscapes, with an emphasis on maintaining a skeletal framework - an underlying structure on the screen, aiming to capture forms and objects from a neutral perspective. It is not an introduction or description of a particular view, nor a photo from a vista point*, but the process of cutting out a particular scene from an arbitrary landscape in front of me, in my own way. This idea has persisted in my work even as my technique transitioned from black-and-white to color photography.”
-Toshio Shibata (*a designated spot providing a scenic view)
The show will feature approximately 20 works, most of which have never been seen before.
Profile
- Toshio Shibata
Born in Tokyo in 1949. After completing a graduate degree in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, he studied photography at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium, where he began working seriously with the medium. Using a large-format camera, he photographed landscapes featuring structures such as dams and concrete retaining walls throughout Japan, presenting them as meticulously crafted black-and-white prints. From the 2000s onward, he expanded his practice to include color works, broadening the scope of his expression. His works are held in numerous museums both in Japan and abroad.
