
VIP Preview Day (Invite only): 7th November (thu)
Venue: West Bund Art Center, 2555 Longteng Avenue
Xuhui District, Shanghai
Booth: N121
A LIGHT HOUSE CALLED KANATA A LIGHT HOUSE CALLED KANATA
“The finished form is done, dead. It is the formation that is life.” Paul Klee, Theorie de l ’art moderne (1945)

The seminal exhibition Simple Forms, held at both the Centre Pompidou-Metz and at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo in 2015, was rooted in the fascination of humanity with forms both simple and full, focusing on the rich and beautiful tales told by the forms of the object. This pursuit of “simple forms”, which deeply resonates with the heralded Japanese aesthetic of the pursuit of beauty through simplicity, is further encapsulated by Marcel Duchamp exclaiming to Constantin Brancusi (upon their visit together to the Salon de la Locomotion Aerienne) that, “Painting is finished! Who can do better than that propeller? Tell me, can you do that?”

Yufuku Gallery proudly presents at our West Bund debut the curated exhibition Simple Forms, a revisit of the presentation featured at the Centre Pompidou-Metz and the Mori Art Museum. Featured are contemporary artists whose works are renowned for their simple forms and landscapes that heighten and accentuate the beauty of their materials.

With the legendary work of Sueharu Fukami in porcelain, Nobuyuki Tanaka in lacquer, Satoru Ozaki in metal, Joseph Walsh of Ireland in wood, Niyoko Ikuta in glass, and Takafumi Asakura, Masanori Maeda and Kentaro Sato in Nihonga Japanese painting, these artists give birth to intuitive and poetic experiments in beauty, thereby pushing the boundaries of their respective materials with innovative new techniques and leaps in imagination. With the visceral power of these purified, more than merely geometric forms, these artists transform space itself.


Today, Yufuku’s aesthetic is known as the Keisho-Ha (School of Form) Movement, and attempts to capture what has been long lost but not forgotten within today’s art world – a much-anticipated Return to Innocence that is testament to what the future holds in store: that art that rises above and beyond must have integrity within execution and craftsmanship, coupled with the pursuit of beauty within material itself. This is the essence of art that we have respected and revered for centuries.

Our artists do not cater to passing trends or fads. Instead, we pursue the fostering of art that can stand the tests of time, and will strike the heart of persons from any creed, culture and continent, and from any moment in time. The Keisho-Ha will emerge from the shadows like the morning sun. A new dawn rises. – Wahei Aoyama
Exhibited WorksExhibited Works
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Sueharu Fukami
Kitsu (Soaring)(2019)
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Nobuyuki Tanaka
Imaginary Skin I(2016)
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Nobuyuki Tanaka
Imaginary Skin II (2016)
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Nobuyuki Tanaka
FLOW V (2018)
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Exhibited ArtistsExhibited Artists
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Sueharu Fukami
深見陶治
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Nobuyuki Tanaka
田中信行
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Joseph Walsh
Joseph Walsh
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Satoru Ozaki
尾崎悟
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Takafumi Asakura
朝倉隆文
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Niyoko Ikuta
生田丹代子
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Keizo Sugitani
杉谷恵造
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Ken Mihara
三原研
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Kentaro Sato
佐藤健太郎
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Masanori Maeda
前田正憲
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Osamu Yokoyama
横山修
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Kanjiro Moriyama
森山寛二郎
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