Opening Saturday, 13 September 2008, Wako Works of Art is very pleased to present an exhibition of early videos and new drawings by Joan Jonas. This will be the artist's third solo show at the gallery. The exhibition is organized in conjunction with her participation in this year's Yokohama Triennale.

Born in 1936 in New York, Joan Jonas studied art history at Mount Holyoke and later sculpture at Columbia University; she was involved in the 1960s and 70s experimental dance and performance movement and worked with artists such as Yvonne Rainer, Simone Forti, Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, and Philip Glass. Her use of props such as mirrors and masks, incorporation of video and drawing, and references to legends, epics and folktales (often narrated by or featuring women) in her storytelling, and her collaboration with musicians of various genres, all lend to the unique quality of her performances. In recent years she performed Lines in the Sand at Documenta 11, Kassel (2002), Kitchen, New York and Tate, London (2004), and The Shapes, the Scent, the Shapes of Things at Dia:Beacon in New York (2005, 2006) and House of World Cultures, Berlin (2008).

The gallery will present early and pivotal films and videos by Jonas, as well as new drawings relating to her latest performances, The Shapes, the Scent, the Feel of Things and Reading Dante. This exhibition will be shown simultaneously with the group show “Silence in the Light” with Noritoshi Hirakawa, Hiroshi Sunairi and Arto Lindsay at Wako Works of Art.

The artist will be presenting her latest performance Reading Dante at the Yokohama Triennale (September 13, 10:30am), as well as an installation of her stage and props for The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things.

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