A new open air exhibition, featuring two domestically and internationally acclaimed young sculptors Ryota Shioya and Jun Yamazoe, will be on view at OAP Sculpture Path in Kita Ward in Osaka through April 2015.

Ryota Shioya is a sculptor who is also known as contemporary ceramic artist. Shioya experiments with visualization of “the emergence of spirits within things” by capturing the trace of motion or the moment of body movement in his ceramic creation. Shioya creates ceramic pieces by first placing the clay on or in between body parts, then by bending joints he captures the trace of movement onto the clay. He binds these pieces with rubber bands to complete his creation; the Guai series. For the Matter and Memory series, Shioya binds the clay with rubber bands, and let their pressure deform it. The clay takes shape on its own with varying characters depending on the firmness of the clay itself and where rubber bands applied pressure; by repeating these steps, Shioya creates Matter and Memory This exhibition features new works from these two series, both developed from Shioya’s thoughts on relationship of act & memory and matter & memory.

Jun Yamazoe, on the other hand, works with large mass of stone. He is a stone sculptor who diligently works only with his own hands using chisel and graver. In Yamazoe’s work, repeated strokes and chisel marks accumulate on the surface of the stone, overlap and cover, and eventually give a sense of presence to the mass, that is precisely when his work becomes a finished piece. For Yamazoe, to chisel stone is to search something invisible within the stone; this very act is the dialogue itself. This exhibition features new series of work from Remnant - Depth II. The four sandstone rectangular mass reveal Yamazoe’s unique organic forms that bring out impression as if one is looking at the passing of time.

Shioya and Yamazoe both work with material and traditional methods that are seemingly difficult for artistic expression and to materialize what they picture in their mind. They seem to have chosen these limitations to further develop new principle in sculpture by being “doer.” This exhibition is titled “Depth of Dialogue/The Extent of Things Within.” We hope that it brings a chance for visitors to rediscover the depth in various everyday activities and the way we perceives time and objects around us.