Daido Moriyama
dal 8/11/2006 al 29/12/2006
Segnalato da
8/11/2006
Daido Moriyama
Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles
Moriyama's 35 mm. photographs are shot in the streets, depicting the darker edges of everyday experience, the underbelly - strip clubs, dark bars, forbidden alleyways, transvestite performers, roadside scenes of urban decay. Early influenced from the west, Moriyama found an energetic way to depict the clash of the old/new, to show the Japan that was morphing into an Asian version of America.
Solo show
The Stephen Cohen Gallery is pleased to announce an overview exhibition of
the black and white photographs of major Japanese photographer, Daido
Moriyama. This exhibition, "Daido Moriyama", will run from November 9th
through December 30, 2006. The artist will be present at the opening
reception on Thursday, November 16, 2006 from 7 to 9pm.
Born in Osaka, Moriyama studied photography before moving to Tokyo in 1961
to work as an assistant to the photographer Eikoh Hosoe. Living in the
aftermath of Japan's embarrassing defeat in World War II to the Allies and
the changes the Americans brought to his tightly controlled and traditional
country, the young Moriyama looked to the west for a way to approach and
examine these changes that many traditionalists bemoaned. Early influenced
from the west, by the work of William Klein, Andy Warhol, and Jack Kerouac's
On the Road, Moriyama found an energetic, dynamic way to depict the clash of
the old/new, to show the Japan that was morphing into an Asian version of
America.
The 60's and 70's was a crucial moment in Japanese history - the economy was
booming, but underneath lay a profound sense of guilt and shame. Moriyama
became a part of the new generation of post-war artists, who were trying to
explore these contradictions and capture the evolving Japan.
Moriyama's 35 mm. photographs are shot in the streets, depicting the darker
edges of everyday experience, the underbelly - strip clubs, dark bars,
forbidden alleyways, transvestite performers, roadside scenes of urban
decay. He is always the outsider shooting shadows as if he was on the run.
His signature image of the snarling stray dog has become the artist's
alter-ego. Moriyama's images are grainy, tilted, dynamic, expressionistic,
alienated. more like the poetry of the Beat Generation than any haiku ever
written.
Sensation and edginess are what he has always been after; through the years
his style has become more focused and less blurry, but the images are still
about a moment, a suggestion of an action about to take place or just
completed. His favorite haunts are still Shinjiku, and Golden Gai, parts of
Tokyo that still feel edgy and thrilling. "I want to express the realness of
Japan. I want to show what is really going on." Moriyama says of his work.
Moriyama still photographs and resides in Japan. His work has been shown in
galleries and museums around the world.
In the viewing room, we will show the work of Keizo Kitajima, a former
student of Moriyama's who traveled to New York in 1981 and, like his mentor
before him, prowled the streets capturing the vitality and changing cultural
trends of the gritty, wild, rebellious underbelly that was New York during
the Reagan years.
Opening reception for the artist November 16, 2006 7 - 9pm
Stephen Cohen Gallery
7358 Beverly Boulevard - Los Angeles
The gallery is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and by appointment.