Opening Friday September 3, 2010, Wako Works of Art is very pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Düsseldorf-based Japanese artist Yuji Takeoka. This will be his sixth solo show at the gallery, and the first in five years.

Employing various materials such as bronze, terracotta, tree bark, Takeoka has been creating his signature pedestal sculptures in the exploration of "spaces established by the placement of objects" and how they are perceived. Entitled To Show Things, the pieces in the show are exemplary of his latest working leitmotif of the observation of the act of showing and presenting works in the public realm. By focusing on glass vitrines, stanchions and ropes, and pedestals that normally function as tools to show and to protect art works, and even installation conditions as the subject matter, Takeoka’s underlying theme of “presentation of space” unravels. In addition, his new works reveal a merging of architectural forms to the form of pedestals, and they assume forms that are reminiscent of Abstract expressionism and minimalist movements, the multifaceted nature thus giving weight to his works.

By exhibiting elements of exhibition that are fundamentally considered invisible and deemed a presence that is “non-work”, this exhibition declares space itself “work” and visually expresses the act of “exhibiting” and “seeing”; and a paradoxical space emerges through the claim that “although nothing is being exhibited, something is being shown”. Takeoka’s works invites the viewer to re-evaluate how the process of installing “something” turns an object into a work of art, as well as the system that makes a work of art work.

Born in Kyoto in 1946. Yuji Takeoka studied sculpture at Kyoto University of the Arts, and graduated from Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 1979. The artist held his first solo exhibition at Konrad Fischer Gallery in Düsseldorf in 1986, and participated in documenta IX (1992). He had a solo exhibition at Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart and at Westfälischer Kunstverein in Münster from 1997 to 1998. From 1998 to 2002, his work was included in a group show Minimal/Maximal, which toured a total of 7 cities in Spain, Korea, Germany and Japan. The artist is scheduled to have a solo exhibition at the Josef Albers Museum in Bottrop, Germany, in 2011. Takeoka is currently a professor at University of the Arts Bremen, and lives and works in Düsseldorf.