Born in 1981, Tomoko Shioyasu majored in sculpture at the Kyoto City University of Arts. In 2005, the year after graduating, she won the Grand Prix at the 6th Spiral Independent Creators Festival (SICF). She then exhibited in the Fukutake House at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006, and was selected for the 2007 VOCA exhibition. As the range of her work expands, it is met by great acclaim, including this year's Most Promising Young Talent Prize in the Fine Art Division of the Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award. Next year, she plans to use the grant associated with the Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award to conduct research and work in China and Europe, which promises to bring additional depth to her work. The upcoming exhibition will be Tomoko Shioyasu's much-awaited first solo exhibition at SCAI The Bathhouse.

As a student, Shioyasu was fascinated by the veins in the leaves of Rumex japonicus found all over campus. The veins were so delicate, yet had such dynamic forms, and she once tried cutting them out one by one with a utility knife. She describes this as the inspiration behind her current works, created on the theme of "nature," and falling into three categories: cutting works, which she creates with fine, overlapping cuts in large, wide sheets of paper using utility knives, soldering-iron works, in which she creates images by melting holes in special synthetic paper, and drawings, using acrylics or charcoal. Common to each of these approaches is a significant amount of delicate and repetitive work performed by hand.

As if in unison with the rhythm of nature as it repeats over time, she makes little cuts over and over again. The little cuts accumulate to create works on a very large scale, producing installations which take in the flow of air and light of their location, becoming one with it so that the exhibition space becomes an abstraction of nature itself, and the installation becomes a sign of nature with presence and depth. Through nature, Shioyasu is expressing a world-view of pursuing the truth of the universe, an approach that is shared with Zen and other forms of Buddhism. In the installation space, the spirit of nature flows through her work, giving the impression of a vivid dance by the air and the particles of light. In a sense, in cutting pieces out of two-dimensional paper, Shioyasu is using thin air as a material and chiseling a new form of sculpture out of the space itself, gaining insights into what things are really like. For her first solo exhibition at SCAI, "Cutting Insights," the centerpiece is a broad sheet of paper, 3.5 meters across and stretching to a height of 6 meters, that she has finely cut and overlapped, installed so as to produce gentle waves. She also presents new soldering-iron works, and drawings in acrylics or charcoal.

Tomoko Shioyasu is attempting to create a new space through a strong and energetic image of life―life that wells up with enough energy to be heard, life that is sublimating and recycling― conveying insights about something that seems to be truly important. It is a great pleasure for SCAI to present this exhibition and provide the opportunity for a wide range of people to see her work.

→[ Artist Info： Tomoko Shioyasu ]

→[ Artist Info： Min Tanaka ]

Born in 1970 in Seoul, Choe U Ram has already established an international reputation through the application of his knowledge of robotic engineering in the creation of mysterious life forms as works of art. He has shown at the Shanghai Biennale, the Samsung Museum of Art Leeum, Seoul, and the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Bologna. He also held a solo show in 2006 as part of the Mori Art Museum's MAM Project series. At that last exhibition Urbanus, a mysterious creature that – according to the work's accompanying texts – floated above the city absorbing its energy, left a deep impression on many visitors for its astounding originality.

When you look back on the history of Korean contemporary art, it is difficult to underestimate the contribution of the legendary Nam June Paik in the 1960s. What kind of influence did the famous Paik, who essentially created the genre of electronic art, have on the Korean artists who came after him? Surprisingly, Paik's influence is not manifested in any remarkable form until the 1980s and 1990s, when works using monitors and video by the likes of Yook Keun Byung emerge. This development becomes further pronounced in the next generation, with artists such as Lee Bul, who attracted much acclaim at the 48th Venice Biennale in 1999, bursting onto the international stage and exerting a strong impact.

In this way, it is possible to catch glimpses in Korean contemporary art today of technological elements that still reveal the influence of Paik. Yet at the same time – and this might sound contradictory – there is an emphasis on details finely executed through careful handwork. What tends to link these two elements is the construction of large-scale fantasies – magnificent and affirmative stories in which the artist unveils visions of the future for mankind or the universe.

With his accomplished robotics and his mastery of technological details, Choe has for a while attracted passionate fans from the ranks of the technologically minded. But to look at his work purely on the level of their technological foundation is to miss its real essence. Through their very use of computers and myriad electronics, Choe's works are able to exhibit movement that is extraordinarily organic and animal-like. Often interacting with the viewers, reacting to their actions, the machines move so elegantly that they elicit in viewers the thrill and surprise of seeing something unlike anything they've experienced before. Strength of visual impact on first encounter has always been one of the necessary and important elements in the appreciation of art. In Choe's works elements of both fantasy and intense reality coexist behind that strong visual exterior. For this reason the work itself invites an effortless appreciation of its true essence, with viewers made to feel that they too are part of the mysterious world of this work as its strong and beautiful inhabitants afford unique glimpses onto the future.

Anima machines: The Latin word anima means life or soul. In this exhibition Choe will present two life forms in installations involving several new art works. Choe's trademark detailed, precision parts will be combined with LED lights to form a scene of large and undulating movement of the kind that has to be seen to be appreciated. With each of his exhibitions to date Choe U Ram has created completely new and astounding life forms. What manner of creature has he in store for us this time?

→[ Artist Info： Choe U Ram ]

Shinko Okuhara's style is unique, creating figures with collage and an extroverted choice of colors unusual for a Japanese artist. This full-scale solo exhibition features large paintings and installation works for the first time.

The theme is "Sleeping Figure." Using large canvasses, Okuhara depicts women lying down in the open air in a number of different urban scenes, such as a vacant lot, park, or under an elevated highway. The women are defenseless, vulnerable, and appear to have fallen asleep while gazing at the infinite sky above the city.

"I'm sure it would feel really good to just lie down in all sorts of places and look up at the sky. Actually falling asleep in a place like that would be embarrassing and dangerous, but I love the idea of doing it. The "Sleeping Figure" series is an attempt to capture that feeling. The adjacent color combinations represent colors that had became confused in the woman's mind. By sleeping here she can 'reset' herself to restore colorlessness." — Shinko Okuhara

The expansive compositions of these canvasses hint at the limitlessness of the world, so that the scene becomes a perfect stage set, drawing viewers' eyes towards the sleeping figure. The figures lying there are depicted by Okuhara's unique collage method that makes them look like someone, but no-one in particular. Okuhara cuts up magazines, ads, and other contributors to the mountains of paper media, reconfiguring them to create her figures. The process seems to symbolize the sampling methods that have become popular along with computers, gathering up all sorts of information, dismantling it and then reassembling it in a different form that embodies confusion and instability. For that reason, although the figures have faces, the face is not that of anyone specific. As well as the emptiness that results from not being a specific individual, the figures have an elegance that conveys innocence without deep feelings, but there is also a sadness somewhere, displaying a cyborg-like aspect. Although each of the elements making up the body has its own reality, the whole is fatefully distorted, making the figure more like a lifeless doll. The connection between the figure and the world is extremely tenuous, which produces some sort of chaos, but at the same time the overall perspective of the work conveys a calmness, as if anticipating a conclusion to the chaos. The scene attracts the viewer's sight like a frozen computer screen. The world quietly waits to be rebooted.

Okuhara has made a name for herself with a fashionable urban style, but with this exhibition she opens up new ground, delving into the "strength of the individual" and the "terror lurking in the everyday" that are essential qualities of her style.

→[ Artist Info： Shinko OKUHARA ]