Left: Kengo Kito, buoyancy of color #9 (detail) © Kengo Kito
Middle: Kohei Nawa, PixCell-Shoe #13 (L), 2024 (detail). Photography: Nobutada OMOTE © Kohei Nawa
Right: Daisuke Ohba, M, 2024 (detail). Photography: Nobutada OMOTE © Daisuke Ohba

Japanese fashion brand Onitsuka Tiger continues to present a contemporary collection that combines fashion with sports, and heritage with innovation.

Tiger Gallery™, an art gallery project of Onitsuka Tiger, is delighted to present FLARE, a group exhibition of works by three artists, Kengo Kito, Daisuke Ohba, and Kohei Nawa from Thursday, October 10 to Friday, November 8, 2024. A total of 27 art works, including new works from Nawa’s iconic PixCell series using Onitsuka Tiger sneakers, were specially created for this exhibition.

Intertwining multifarious materials, approaches, and concepts, FLARE presents works of a cohesive vision that explore the contingencies of contemporary existence as well as grand narratives that harken back to the universe’s origins. The paintings, sculptures, and installations reflect dynamic interplays of space, time, and light, catapulting viewers into a new dimension charged with both paradox and possibility.

In May 2024, while the artists were conceptualizing the current exhibition, a historical solar flare occurred, attracting great attention as auroras were observed around the world. Serendipitously, a few years prior, they had jointly presented an exhibition titled Taiyo (“Sun”). In contemplating these connections, Kohei Nawa proposed the title FLARE for the current exhibition as an homage to the celestial spectacle as well as the artists’ interconnected creative journeys. Much like the sun, which channels ancient energies to illuminate the future, FLARE addresses the essence and potential of our era, both present and future.

Kengo Kito’s celebrated “Hula Hoop” installations and paintings transform circles into infinitely connected lines that in turn become larger intersecting circles—a potent metaphor for interconnectedness. The works explore the relationship between the circle and the line, and fullness and the void, referencing traditional Zen Buddhist philosophy where the circle is a form that is both perfectly whole and empty, while a straight line symbolizes a spiritual path forward. For the current exhibition, Kito has chosen to use black tubes instead of colorful tubes to fill the space. This is the first time Kito is using only black tubes, with the powerful black lines echoing the energy and force of Onitsuka Tiger stripes.

Daisuke Ohba’s mesmerizing paintings are bathed in light and radiate color diffused in all directions, establishing the pictorial field as a new dimension where time and space intersect. In Ohba’s words: “The rainbow created from two vanishing points is created by the relationship between light, the viewer, and the painting. They fuse together to become a mosaic, which encompasses the spectrum of cultures of humanity.” Within this liminal mosaic of existence, viewers witness the fleeting ephemerality of an uncertain world.

Kohei Nawa encapsulates the vast breadth and depth of the exhibition through works that range from the 2D to the 3D. Works from Moment and Red Code materialise the presence of digital signals and noise omnipresent in information space as well as the universe. Anchoring the exhibition are Nawa’s iconic PixCell, Prism, and Trans series that utilize Onitsuka Tiger sneakers. Shoes, which relate to the verticality of the figure, ground the body to the earth and connect human beings with the city, signify the starting point of actions and movements.

Kohei Nawa, PixCell-Shoe #13 (L), 2024. Photography: Nobutada OMOTE © Kohei Nawa

As the title FLARE suggests, this exhibition focuses on the various phases of the circular form and the amorphous energies, both literal and metaphorical, exuding from the orb-like structures. These include celestial bodies, mass-produced products, polarized colors, self-referential and infinitely repeating illusions, as well as swirling traces of drawings, clusters of dots, and even viewers’ own eyeballs as they perceive these elements. As viewers navigate through the display, they redefine their own footing as the foundation that links them to the world. With both feet planted firmly on the most familiar orb of all, the Earth, viewers are invited to fully immerse themselves in the resounding flares emanating from the works in the exhibition.

“FLARE” a group exhibition by Kengo Kito, Daisuke Ohba, and Kohei Nawa, will be held at the gallery space of the Onitsuka Tiger flagship store on Regent Street in London, from Thursday, October 10 to Friday, November 8, 2024.

Dates: Thursday, October 10, 2024 – Friday, November 8, 2024
Opening Hours: Monday-Saturday: 11:30-18:00 / Sunday: 12:00-18:00
Venue: Onitsuka Tiger Regent Street, London Flagship (249-251 Regent St., London W1B 2EP, UK)
Tiger Gallery Official Website：https://www.onitsukatiger.com/jp/en-gl/tiger-gallery
Tiger Gallery Official Instagram：https://www.instagram.com/tigergallery1949/

■Kengo Kito
(b. 1977, Aichi, Japan) graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Nagoya University of the Arts in 2001 and completed his postgraduate studies of oil painting at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2003. In 1999, Kito was a founding member of the independent art space “dot”. Kito is a professor at the Kyoto University of the Arts. Kito is known for his conceptual art installations that repurpose everyday objects, such as hula hoops, shampoo bottles, and scarves, in constructions that incorporate rotation, repetition and circulation in order to invoke the expansiveness of life forms and the universe. Kito’s works combine a variety of expressive methods such as sculpture, painting, and photography, while connecting modern materials with ideas rooted in traditional Japanese philosophy, culture, and art.

■Daisuke Ohba
(b. 1981, Shizuoka, Japan) graduated from the Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2005 and completed his master’s degree in Oil Painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2007. Blending Eastern and Western painting techniques, and by manipulating unique materials and pigments whose colors change depending on ambient light, Ohba creates iridescent pearl paintings that evoke continuously changing illusions, constructing a quiet dialogue with viewers. As image and color continuously change throughout time, the image, crystallized within the mind of the painter, is activated and brought to life. While these responsive effects are calculated via methodological experiments according to optical laws, Ohba’s process also embraces the notion of chance, producing unexpected formations of patterns. Ohba is an associate professor at the Kyoto University of the Arts.

■Kohei Nawa
(b. 1975, Osaka, Japan) received a PhD in Fine Art/Sculpture from Kyoto City University of Arts in 2003, and established Sandwich in 2009. He is now a professor at the Kyoto University of the Arts. Focusing on the surface “skin” of sculpture as an interface connecting to the senses, Nawa began his PixCell series in 2002 based on the concept of the cell, symbolizing the information age. Adopting a flexible interpretation of the meaning of sculpture, he produces perceptual experiences that reveal the physical properties of materials to the viewer through works addressing themes related to life and the cosmos and to artistic sensibility and technology, including Direction, in which he produces paintings using gravity, Force, in which silicone oil pours down through a space, Biomatrix, in which bubbles and grids emerge on a liquid surface, and Foam, in which bubbles form enormous volumes.
Recently, Nawa has also worked on architectural projects, including the art pavilion “Kohtei.” “VESSEL,” a performance work produced in conjunction with Belgo-French choreographer and dancer Damien Jalet, has been presented around the world since its premiere in 2015. In 2018, his sculpture “Throne” was exhibited under the Pyramid at the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France. In 2023, “Ether (Equality),” a 25 meters-tall sculpture was installed permanently on Seguin Island on France’s Seine River.

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