Irvine Contemporary is pleased to present Akemi Maegawa’s first solo exhibition, Invisible, Inc. The exhibition will feature the artist’s sculptures and installation works in a wide range of media and materials, including works in ceramics and fabric. The exhibition investigates the invisible cultural values that surround art objects and the making of art value, opening up the art world’s practice as Invisible, Inc.
The works engage playfully with ongoing questions about an art work’s conceptual basis, the status of the material object, the role of the artist as a curator of cultural objects, and the effects of scale, size, and materials. The exhibition includes interactive and collaborative works, including a disguised woodblock print press for making artist’s bank notes. Exhibition essay by Benjamin Teague. Opening reception with the artist, Saturday, February 23, 6-8PM.
Maegawa’s installation will include collaborative and performative works that require the participation of gallery visitors in creating works that will be made “invisibly” on site during the exhibition. Gallery visitors are invited to participate in the creation of “Counter-Foot Money,” an editioned woodblock print of an artist’s designed bank note, a print of which will be created each day as visitors set foot in the gallery on a carpet overlaying the woodcut and paper. The editioned series of 25 signed, numbered, and dated prints will be exhibited and available in the gallery, and will be credited as “Akemi Maegawa and Irvine Gallery Collaborators.”
