The art collaboration project "New Essentials" between Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building and CADAN (Japan Contemporary Art Dealers Association) will begin on Tuesday, March 29th.

Contemporary art, as its name suggests, constantly seeks to discover new aesthetic values. At the same time, it also allows us to discern the cultural background that strongly reflects the era in which it is created.
How are artists living in this era navigating the existing culture? What essential elements are they creating in their works? This project aims to deliver the new atmosphere and new essence of this era to you through contemporary art.

The cubic exhibition spaces called SI (Store Identity), located on four floors of Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building , will feature special installations tailored to the theme of each floor.

CADAN x ISETAN MEN'S

This is a collaborative project between CADAN (Japan Contemporary Art Dealers Association), an organization comprised of leading contemporary art galleries in Japan, and Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building , which aims to become the world's No. 1 men's fashion store.

[Exhibition contents]

■ Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 1st Floor... Takeshi Kimura (Affiliated Gallery: Tezukayama Gallery)

■ Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 2nd Floor... Margaret Lee (Affiliated Gallery: MISAKO&ROSEN)

■ Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 4th Floor... Morio Shinoda (Affiliated Gallery: KOKI ARTS)

■ Isetan Shinjuku Store, Men's Building 6th Floor... Akira Ohno (Affiliated Gallery: XYZ collective)

Takeshi Kimura (Affiliated gallery: Tezukayama Gallery)

Takeshi Kimura is an artist who excels at realizing his ideas using a variety of materials, rather than specializing in just one. This new work is inspired by the infinite column of Constantin Brancusi (born 1876), a sculptor from Romania. Brancusi's infinite column extends infinitely towards the sky, but Kimura sought a sculpture that would expand horizontally to suit the modern era, and as a result, he created "live log." Having long been interested in wheels, Kimura noticed that people were using bicycles more often during the COVID-19 pandemic, and his concept is to carve Brancusi's sculpture into bicycle tires, so that the ground on which the wheel travels expands infinitely horizontally. He hopes to spread the trajectory of the wheel by exhibiting it in various places.

Margaret Lee (Affiliated gallery: MISAKO&ROSEN)

Margaret Lee consistently captures worldly issues, as well as heterosexual and sexual matters, with a light touch, from a uniquely feminine perspective. Is it a male-dominated society? An era of female dominance? These questions are relevant to contemporary society and are shared by everyone today. Even in a world that consciously tries to blur the lines between being male and female, symbolic and emphatic visuals still exist. Margaret Lee's works, which depict this ambiguous world, possess a certain charm. They are also characterized by visuals that powerfully stimulate the viewer's imagination.

Morio Shinoda (Affiliated gallery: KOKI ARTS)

Shinoda, known for his TC (Tension and Compression) series in which he uses the tension and pressure of steel wires to fix metal blocks in mid-air, continues to express space and tension using lines, unfolding a strange and mysterious world with a sense of scale.

Akira Ohno (Affiliated gallery: XYZ collective)

Akira Ohno's recent series, "Object for Painting," moves between abstract painting and sculpture. The main material of his works is clay, and he does not use any oil paints or watercolors, instead using the natural colors of various types of clay. He incorporates both the context of Japanese crafts and ceramics and the context of Western abstract painting.