Emi Katsuta

Tiger Girl, 2018

Japanese cypress, resin, acrylic paint

42.5 x 18.5 x 10.6 inches (108 x 47 x 27 cm)

After opening its first overseas location this September, SEIZAN Gallery New York will feature Emi Katsuta in its first solo exhibition of an artist. Opening November 1st, 2018, Emi Katsuta: That Fantastic Someone will examine the Japan-based wood sculptor’s most recent works, which delve into childhood dreams and the artist’s response to current social movements. Emi Katsuta will be present at the gallery for the opening reception.

Emi Katsuta was born in Nagasaki, Japan in 1983. After graduating from Aichi Prefectural University of Arts and Tokyo University of the Arts with degrees in sculpture, Katsuta quickly became known through Asia for her childlike wood sculptures through which she explores loneliness, secret desires, and women’s rights. After having been featured in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Japan, China, Taiwan, and the United States, Emi Katsuta now brings her unique perspective to New York City for the first time.

The central work of the exhibition, Tiger Girl, is a three and a half-foot-tall sculpture wearing the famous Onitsuka Tiger MEXICO 66 gold sneakers, the artist’s favorite sneaker brand. The female figure, who looks straight forward with a loudspeaker in her hand, pays homage to the #MeToo movement and women’s strength. Works accompanying Tiger Girl include Katsuta’s Monmon series, which deals with a case of child abandonment that occurred in Japan’s Saitama Prefecture in 2008. In her statement, Katsuta expressed that her decorative figures display her character’s secret thoughts and feelings, such as the yearning to be seen by those we admire and love. Katsuta reveals these inner desires in bright, colorful clothing and rosy-cheeked children, turning the feelings that are often considered weaknesses by society into her figure’s strength.

The exhibition will be on view at SEIZAN’s Chelsea gallery through January 5th, 2019. The exhibition catalog will be available for purchase at the gallery.