Kim? Contemporary Art Centre
Kim? participates at ONSEN CONFIDENTIAL 2022

Host Gallery: XYZ collective (Tokyo) & 4649 (Tokyo)

Guest Gallery: Kim? (Riga, Latvia)

Participants: Indriķis Ģelzis, Maija Kurševa, Toru Otani, Krišs Salmanis, Shogo Shimzu

Dates: September 11 – September 25, 2022 

ONSEN CONFIDENTIAL party: September 11, Cafe Sunday, Mishuku, 6pm onwards

Gallery hours: Thu – Sat 12:00 – 18:00 Sun 12:00 – 17:00 

Address: 2-13-4-B02 Sugamo, Toshima-ku, Tokyo 170-0002

 

Kim? Contemporary Art Centre is pleased to announce its participation at ONSEN CONFIDENTIAL – a hybrid city-wide gallery share and natural hot spring retreat-conference that takes place in Tokyo & Atami, Japan, from September 5 to September 25, 2022. 

 

As part of the program Kim? will stage an exhibition at the host gallery XYZ Collective & 4649 premises showcasing the new body of work by three Latvian artists – Indriķis Ģelzis (b. 1988), Maija Kurševa (b. 1981) and Krišs Salmanis (b. 1977). XYZ collective will present artist’s Toru Otani (b. 1988) work and 4649 will present artists’s Shogo Shimzu (b. 1993) work.

 

The project is meant to bring together like-minded gallerists in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation and to provide a friendly introduction to the unique context of the contemporary art world of Tokyo. ONSEN CONFIDENTIAL was inspired by precedents such as the Milwaukee International, Paramount Ranch, Condo, OKEY DOKEY, Friend of a Friend, the Villa Projects (Villa Warsaw, Villa Reykjavik and Villa Toronto), non-profit initiatives such as NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) and Paris Internationale and gallery organizations such as CADAN (Contemporary Art Dealers Association Nippon) and the IGA (International Galleries Alliance).

 

ONSEN CONFIDENTIAL 2022 participants:

 

Guest Galleries from abroad: Good Weather (Arkansas, Chicago USA), A Thousand Plateaus (Chengdu, China), Galerie Gregor Staiger (Zurich, Milan, Switzerland, Italy), Jan Kaps (Cologne, Germany), LambdaLambdaLambda (Prishtina, Kosovo), 47 Canal (New York, USA), Kim? ( Riga, Latvia), Galerie Crevecoeur (Paris, France), Johnathan Hopson (Houston, USA), Galeria Wschód (Warsaw), Chris Sharp (Los Angeles, USA), Air de Paris, (Paris, France), Max Mayer (Dusseldorf, Germany), The Green Gallery (Milwaukee), Kristina Kite Gallery (Los Angeles, USA).

 

Host Galleries in Tokyo: Fig., Satoko Oe Contemporary, Mujin-to Production, Aoyama l Meguro, MISAKO & ROSEN, XYZ collective, Hagiwara Projects, KAYOKOYUKI, Tomio Koyama Gallery, 4649, Take Ninagawa, Anomaly.

 

Kim? participation in ONSEN CONFIDENTIAL 2022 is supported by: State Culture Capital Foundation, Ministry of Culture, Riga City Council.

 

Biographies:

 

Indriķis Ģelzis (b. 1988, Riga) analyzes personal experience, as well as memories and art history, using three-dimensional models for bringing together and abstracting information which seemingly makes up a pattern of data but does not in fact yield itself to comprehension. Ģelzis’ research ends up assuming the form of plane and freestanding objects/figures, welded, bent and cut in the artist’s studio. Recent solo and duo exhibitions: Tatjana Pieters (Ghent, 2021), Castor (London, 2020), Cinnnamon (Rotterdam, 2019), ASHES/ASHES (New York, 2019), King’s Leap (New York, 2018), Belenius with Adja Yunkers, (Stockholm, 2018), SUPRAINFINIT with Viktor Timofeev (Bucharest, 2018).

 

Maija Kurševa (b. 1981, Lielplatone) works with installation, moving image, graphics and drawings. In 2017, Kurševa founded the not-for-profit gallery Low, and has acted as the gallery’s programme director (2017-2019). She is also the founder and curator of Riga Zine Festival (2016, 2018) as well as co-founder and project manager of the artist collective Popper Publishing (2012-2018). Kurševa has partaken in artist residencies Kai in Tallinn (2020), ISCP in New York (2019) Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris as part of Kim? Residency Award (2019) and Iaspis in Umea (2013). From 2004, she has participated in exhibitions in Latvia and abroad, and notably, was nominated for the Purvītis Prize in 2017 for her work Joviality.

 

Toru Otani (b. 1988, Kanagawa) is a Japanese artist who approaches to create new images by drawing over ready-made objects. Otani has been involved in group exhibitions Busy Work At Home at Nonaka Hill, Los Angeles (2021), Maoya Kishi & Toru Otani at Kodama Gallery, Tokyo (2018), Mud, Tokyo, and Swimming at Shinjuku Park Hall 1, Tokyo (2017) and Nostalgia Fantasia at Kodama Gallery, Tokyo (2016). He has had solo exhibitions at Nonaka Hill (2022) in Los Angeles, imalbor (2020) and Kodama Gallery (2017, 2015) in Tokyo.

 

Krišs Salmanis (b. 1977, Riga) uses animation, video, photography, objects, his body, trees etc. in his art. Salmanis has had shows at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga, Latvia, CAC in Vilnius, Lithuania, Art in General in New York, USA,  A4 in Chengdu, China, and elsewhere. He has gained a number of awards, including at the 13th Tallinn Print Triennial in 2004, 19. Videokunst Förderpreis, Bremen, Germany (2010), Purvītis Prize (2017) and Latvian Theatre award (2019). Salmanis’ works are in the collections of the Latvian National Museum of Art and the Art Museum of Estonia. He has taken part in numerous international artist residencies, including HIAP in Helsinki, Finland (2012), KAIR in Kamiyama, Japan (2015) and ISCP in New York, USA (2022). He represented Latvia at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). 

 

Shogo Shimizu (b. 1993, Hokkaido). Through a variety of media, mainly colored pencil drawings, he has been attracting attention for his works that express, with a touch of humor, very personal details such as his own mental illness and addiction, and the anxieties and fears of urban life. Selected exhibitions include a group show at No Gallery in New York (2022), a two-person show with Calvin Miceli Nelson at 4649 in Tokyo (2021), Münster Skulptur Projekte, Sagamihara (2018), STAKE HOUSE DOSKOI (2018), Strange Store (2013, 2012).