Opening July 28, 2007, Wako Works of Art is very pleased to present its fourth installment of the summer group exhibition from/to, featuring young Japanese artists. Initiated in 2004, the from/to program has since allowed the gallery to work with a number of young artists, some of who have started making their way into the international art scene since their participation. from/to #4 brings together Takashi Sobajima, Miyuki Mitsui and Nana Yokoi in an exhibition surrounding the ordinary and the extraordinary found in the everyday world that we often take for granted.

Executing his simplified forms in bold, striking colors and brushstrokes, the images in the paintings by Takashi Sobajima (b. 1981) are derived from various verbal and visual information found in his everyday experiences. Paralyzing the potential narrative or the significance that could be derived from his images, Sobajima relies on the fundamental elements of painting – form, color, composition and the materiality of the paint – to convey his physical existence.

The overwhelming video, drawings and sculpture installations by Miyuki Mitsui (b. 1983) taunt and lure the viewer to come experience her uncanny sense of the world. Her video work traverses the reality and the imaginary, and her installation stimulates the viewer's senses and emotions, heightening the awkward tension that lies between them and the artist.

Nana Yokoi’s (b. 1983) pencil-drawing animation unravels a frail, phantasmagoric world that is almost as if it is "spurred by her realization of being privy to the secret workings of her world through mindless daily activities." On a single piece of paper, her main characters, or her alter egos such as a boy, a girl, a mermaid, play out the artist’s newfound knowledge. Scattered with those secrets, the works on paper, which later turn into film, is her means of reconciliating her relationship with the world.

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