Toronto Underground in Tokyo

Art x Life gallery, Tokyo Japan is pleased to announce "Toronto Underground" An art exhibition of Toronto's most promising emerging artists.
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Art x Life gallery in Tokyo presents
Special exhibition
Toronto Underground
Selection of Toronto's most promising emerging artists

-tomolennon
-Fiona Smyth
-Kirsten Johnson
-Christopher Hutsul
-Nicholas Di Genova
-Harvey Chan
-Gregory John Hern


Art x Life gallery will present an exhibition introducing, for the first time in Japan, 7 of Toronto's most promising emerging artists at a crucial time in their career.

Toronto is the largest financial, cultural and entertainment centre in Canada, named by UNESCO as the world's most multicultural city, but the city's native culture is still unknown. Diversity of race, religion and lifestyle help define and set Toronto apart from other world cities. Toronto is considered one of the world's most diverse cities wherein over 100 languages are spoken. The nature of Toronto's multiculturalism is reflected in its wonderful mosaic of distinctive neighborhoods, a global village of MixedEWorld Heritage.

Now, for the first time, Japanese can experience the rich cultural diversity of Toronto through contemporary art. The exhibition includes work by tomolennon, a Japanese-born artist well known for his large-scale figurative portrait series called Sleeping Beauty, innovative in its approach of combining art and fashion. With more than 21 years of experience, Fiona Smyth is a leading representative of Canada's contemporary art scene. She was born in Montreal and moved to Toronto in the late 70's and became an all-round artist, making paintings, illustrations, murals and comics. Kirsten Johnson is a Toronto based visual artist whose work appears in private and public collections all over North America, Europe and Australia. Her work often involves a fusing of her visual work with her strong background in performance. Christopher Hutsul is a British Columbia native artist, writer, and emerging film director. His humorous but "cutting-edge" quality of drawings appears everywhere around the city from local galleries to newspapers and magazines. Nicholas Di Genova is a recent graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design. He is known for his illustrations of flora and fauna that　will populate this planet millions of years after the Apocalypse. Harvey Chan is a Hong Kong native. After graduating from Ontario College of Art and Design, Harvey pursued his career as an illustrator. He has illustrated many children's books and has been short-listed for the Governor General's Award twice in his prestigious career. Gregory John Hern is a young Toronto born photographer, just graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design. He is best known for his large domestic tableaux using himself as the family archetypes.


Toronto Underground
Curated by Cojac, Centre of Japanese Arts and Culture
Guest curator Rafi Ghanaghounian



Exhibition date: December 2nd, 2007 to January 31st, 2008

ART x Life GALLERY
Tokyo Japan
Sponsored by TOKYOGANBANYOKU


Address: Pearl Center 2F, 1-36-4 Sanko bldg., Asagaya Minami, Suginami-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Hours: AM10:00~PM10:00
TEL: [phone]
Website: http://www.tokyoganbanyoku.jp/
Media contact: (Tokyo) Saeko Ando [e-mail]
Media contact: (Toronto) Studio 2/artic [e-mail]


[Art x Life gallery]
Located in the Tokyoganbanyoku, the largest, exclusive and luxury SPA center of Japan, Art x Life gallery is the newest concept contemporary art gallery offers programmes of changing exhibitions and supporting events to increase interest, understanding and involvement in contemporary art.
Art x Life gallery adds the exciting works of contemporary artists to Tokyo's thriving cultural scene.

[COJAC, Centre of Japanese Arts and Culture]
Centre of Japanese Arts and Culture (COJAC) formed in 2005 dedicated to generating new bonds of understanding of Japan and the Japanese through art and cultural programs. COJAC contributes to local communities culturally and socially by supporting artists who introduce and share Japanese culture with local communities, and by creating a place for artistic activities through the organizing of exhibits, educational programs, and providing networking services. This contribution helps to foster a mutual understanding of one's own culture while it also promotes the creation of culturally active communities.
It is our intention to support various Japanese and non-Japanese artists whose work relates to Japanese culture by affording the artists the opportunities to exhibit or perform their artistic activities.