Artist Michiko Nakatani's solo exhibition "Mask of Daylight / Solidifying Night" is running until September 1st at Art Front Gallery in Daikanyama, Tokyo.

Michiko Nakatani was born in 1981 and graduated from the Sculpture Department of Tama Art University in 2005. After studying abroad in Dresden, Germany, she is now based in Mie Prefecture. She is currently holding a large-scale solo exhibition, "A Man Standing in That Small Universe" (July 6th to September 29th) at the Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Yanagihara Yoshitatsu Memorial Hall.

Michiko Nakatani's signature works are semi-three-dimensional reliefs created by pouring transparent resin into carved plasterwork.

Michiko Nakatani "Across the River, A Voice Calling for a Boat" Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2018 (detail)
Photo Hayato Wakabayashi


This style, born during her early years studying in Germany, began with a series of drawings she made while facing the loneliness of being in an unfamiliar foreign land. Unlike traditional sculptures, which are physical and leave a clear impression with a strong presence, she creates sculptures that seem "there, yet not there," and "maintain a pure, painting-like image."

This exhibition, "Masks of Daylight / Solidifying the Night," presents a new attempt to "probe more deeply into the presence and absence of presence," featuring life-size mask reliefs and a new series of black transparent resin cubes.

New work "Solidifying the Night 1" 2019
Photo Matsubara Yutaka

Drawings, which could be said to be the artist's starting point, will also be on display.