Maki Fine Arts is pleased to present "Beyond the future of Meld Sculpture," a group show curated by Yoshio Shirakawa, starting Friday, June 29, 2018. Please join us to commemorate the 35th anniversary and Shirakawa's involvement in the 1983 Kunstmuseum Duesseldorf exhibition "Dada in Japan: Japanische Avantgarde, 1920-1970."

"What I call meld sculpture is work created using DIY materials and methods. A while back, Kurt Schwitters came up with Merz pictures. Imitating Schwitter's art style, I proposed a style called meld sculpture or meld art in 2000. In this show, I, along with four artists I selected, will envision what lies further beyond meld sculpture, using materials and methods from that style."
- Yoshio Shirakawa

Collaboration: Aoyama Meguro, Yumiko Chiba Associates

Yoshio Shirakawa
Born 1948 in Fukuoka, Japan, Shirakawa studied philosophy and art in Germany in the 70s and received his MFA from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1981. He has been based in Gunma since returning to Japan in 1983. His recent exhibitions include solo shows such as "- A Memory Erased - Nagasaki | Gunma" (Concept Space, 2018), "Coyote" (Maki Fine Arts, 2017), "The Capital Room: Beyond Three Dimensional Logical Pictures--vol. 7" (gallery αM, 2016), and "dada, dada, da" (Arts Maebashi, 2014). Recent group shows include "Contemporary Art in Gunma 2017--Where contemporary art belongs in the community" (Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, 2017), "Creative Dialogue with Museum 01--MONUMENT" (Tottori Prefecture Museum, 2017), "Aichi Triennale 2016--A Rainbow Caravan" (2016), and "Sliding Railroad" (former-Tokorozawa Meal Center, 2015).

Yasuko Toyoshima
Born 1967 in Saitama, Japan, Toyoshima received her MFA from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1993. By taking a critical look at institutions and systems found in everyday life and in our society, Toyoshima focuses on creating works that shed light on the patterns found in human thought. Her recent shows include solo shows such as "Margin" (m-gallery, 2017), "Quadrilateral" (Maki Fine Arts, 2017), and "The Capital Room: Beyond Three Dimensional Logical Pictures--vol.1" (gallery αM, 2015), as well as group shows such as "Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions: Multiple Future" (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2017), and "MOT Collection: Collection Ongoing (Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2016).

Motohiro Tomii
Born 1973 in Niigata, Japan, Tomii studied in New York from 2015 to 2016 as part of the Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists. By taking ready-made products and modifying them minimally, Tomoji releases them from their fixed meanings, giving new potential to sculptures as molding elements coexisting with color and form. He has received much attention with his daily tweets entitled "Today's sculpture" as well as with his activities that examine existing exhibition spaces and systems with a critical eye. His recent shows include "Connecting Images" (Yumiko Chiba Associates viewing room Shinjuku, 2017) and "Composition - Rules within objects" (ATELIER MUJI, Tokyo, 2018).

Satoshi Hashimoto
Born 1977, Hashimoto has exhibited his work in shows such as "Can't Go, Please Come" (ARCUS, Ibaraki, 2010), "Omnilogue: JOURNEY TO THE WEST" (Lalit Kara Academy, Delhi, 2012), "Arbitrary Decisions and Prejudices: I Divide the Audience" (The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2012), "False name: 14 EVENINGS" (The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 2012), "I was Leonardo da Vinci. I sell my soul. I sell heaven" (Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo, 2013), "Nation, Dice, Instruction" (Daiwa Foundation, London, 2014), "MOT Annual 2016, Loose Lips Save Ships" (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2016), "Everything and Others" (LISTE - Art Fair Basel, 2016), "Fw: Outside the country [Japan-Malaysia]" (including international airports, airplanes, Malaysia, 2016), "The World's Three Major Round Things: the Sun, the Moon, the Eye" (Aoyama Meguro, 2017), and "Night − Time = Darkness" (Hans & Fritz Contemporary, Barcelona, 2018). Along with his solo pursuits, Hashimoto actively collaborates with other artist and art critics in projects including An Art User Conference, Kiso Geijutsu - Contemporary Art Think-tank, and the Artists' Guild.

Shinsuke Aso
Born in 1979 in Gunma, Japan, Aso headed to the US after graduating Kitakanto School of Fine Arts in 2000. He is a 2004 graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York and is currently based in New York. He collects material from his daily life, deconstructs the original, and then reassembles the materials onto a different surface to create collages that introduce new meaning and point of view. He has also continued his long-term SAPC Project selling postcards made from cardboard and packaging material for 25 cents each. Through these undertakings, Aso aims to applaud the limitless diversity that has been generated from involving countless onlookers to a piece of art and to seek modes of expressions that encourage unique interpretations and conclusions from each viewer.