Yutaka Sone: Island / David Zwirner, New York

Japanese artist Yutaka Sone’s current exhibition at David Zwirner in New York brings together marble sculptures and trees made predominantly from rattan. It’s Yutaka Sone’s fifth solo show since his first exhibition at the gallery in 1999.

The first room of the exhibition which is titled Island is dominated by one of the highlights of the show, a large marble sculpture with the name Little Manhattan (2007-2009). The two-and-a-half ton block turns out to be a detailed, intricately carved model of the island of Manhattan. Yutaka Sone used photographic reproductions, imagery from Google Earth, and several helicopter rides to render Manhattan with its Central Park, skyscrapers, streets, avenues, and the bridges to the east and west to scale.

The second room presents an arrangement of marble works and rattan trees. The trees are made from rattan woven around a metal armature, the leaves and stems have been painted with acrylic paint. Six Banana Trees (2008-2010) are complemented by a Travelers Palm (2011) with its flat, fan-like shape.

Yutaka Sone was born in 1965 in Shizuoka, Japan. He studied architecture at the Tokyo Geijutsu University. The artist predominantly works in sculpture, but also uses painting, drawing, photography, video, and performance as means of expression.

Yutaka Sone’s work was shown in a number of group exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including Glasstress 2011 in Venice, BadLands at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Biennial 2004, the Sao Paulo Biennial 2003, and the Istanbul Biennial 2001. He had two solo exhibitions recently in Tokyo: Yutaka Sone: Snow at Maison Hermès Le Forum in 2010 and Yutaka Sone: Perfect Moment at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in 2011.

Yutaka Sone: Island at David Zwirner in New York runs until October 29, 2011.

Yutaka Sone: Island at David Zwirner, New York. Opening reception, September 20, 2011.

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Photo set on Flickr:
Yutaka Sone: Island

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