D’Amelio Terras, New York
January 11 – February 15, 2003
D’Amelio Terras is pleased to present One Place on the Earth, the third New York solo exhibition by gallery artist Rei Naito. The exhibition marks the first time a sculptural environment by the artist has been shown in New York since her 1992 exhibition at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. The artist will present a large, tent-like structure containing thousands of miniature beads, threads, and other delicate components illuminated only by natural light. Visited by one person at a time, the work encourages quiet contemplation and attention to its myriad small details.
Speaking of earlier installations, Japanese curator Fumio Nanjo wrote: “…In the Japanese aesthetic of hakanasa (the transitory and ephemeral), fragile and fleeting things, because they are soon to disappear, are to be enjoyed to the fullest while they still exist. The beauty emerging from this ‘weakness,’ consistently resides in Naito’s work.”
Rei Naito represented Japan during the 1997 Venice Biennial. Other sculptural environments have been shown at the Museum fur Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt, Germany (1999) and The National Museum of Art in Osaka, Japan (1995). In 2001, after three years of research, planning, and installation, Naito completed Being Given, a site-specific installation for the Art House Project in Naoshima, Japan, sponsored by the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Kagawa. Rei Naito: Art Works, a comprehensive catalogue featuring all her installation pieces, was recently published.
