By K.D. Norris
ken@wktv.org
Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park announced Monday that its next featured exhibit will be Masayuki Koorida: Beyond Existence — an exhibit which will both build compliment the partially carved and polished boulders of the artist’s “Existance”, a focal point of the The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden, and will expand on the artist’s emerging genius.
“As one of his first gallery presentations in the United States, (Koorida’s) repertoire will reach and inform a broad audience,” Joseph Antenucci Becherer, Meijer Gardens chief curator and vice president said in supplied material. “Our relationship with Koorida is very important to Meijer Gardens and dates to the commission of his acclaimed piece ‘Existence’ in our Japanese garden. His use of materials and form is both elegant and contemplative.”
The exhibit, opening May 25, showcases Koorida’s work with a wide range of materials and his broader repertoire, which includes highly geometric pieces in a variety of scale and materials, but maybe most interesting will be a series of large, never-before-seen drawings created specifically for this exhibition. This exhibition runs through Aug. 19.
In the last decade, according to material supplied by Meijer Gardens, Koorida has emerged as “one of the most elegant voices in contemporary sculpture.” While his work has been exhibited in China, Japan and Europe, he is still relatively unseen in the United States.
And the artist has expressed his appreciation for the opportunity the Meijer Gardens exhibit will afford.
“Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is the first sculpture park that has collected my work in the United States,” Koorida said in supplied material. “Since the first time that I visited for the (‘Existence’) project in 2013, I have been to Meijer Gardens several times. I always find something new to discover; including great sculptures, exhibitions, beautiful flowers and gardens.
“I feel that the park is loved by people very much. It has been a great honor to be part of the collection. I am very glad to hold this solo exhibition at Meijer Gardens in 2018, it is exciting to have people experience it.”
Koorida (b. 1960, in Kyoto, Japan) lives in and works from a studio in Shanghai, China. According to supplied information, the artist placed his studio in China so that he is in close contact with abundant stone quarries in south China, and also allows him an opportunity to have a large industrial space for carving and polishing. He operates a very hands-on studio with few assistants and is physically engaged with his work. He is most well known for his sculpture in stone that range in scale from table top to the monumental, from single forms to small groups of related images. Koorida travels widely in search of the right stones for the right projects; granite is preferred, but he also works in black and white marble.
To show how little he has been shown in the United State’s, the only YouTube videos of his shows are from Europe. Visit here for an video in Italian.
The exhibit will include special programing including:
A discussion titled “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: When is a Stone Just a Stone and When is it Art?”, by Dr. Craig Hanson, on Sunday, June 3, from 2-3 p.m. The talk will explore the questions of sculpture or structure? Artform or accident? Decorative art or garden decor? “For millennia, stone has been used for decidedly unartistic purposes as well as the material of choice for many sculptors. This lecture explores how stone takes on new meaning as an art form while highlighting ‘Existence’.”
There will also Japanese Garden Sculpture Walk, with Anna Wolff, Meijer Gardens curator of arts education, on both Sunday, July 15, at 2 p.m., and on Tuesday, Aug. 7, at 6 p.m. The free with admission walking tour of the sculpture in The Richard & Helen DeVos Japanese Garden will focus on what “makes this garden one of the most unique in the nation as we explore themes of tranquility, permanence and the relationship of humanity and the natural environment.”
For more information visit meijergardens.org .
