The collaboration between Yoyo Maeght and Aki Kuroda has continued for more than 40 years, since the Ténèbres exhibition presented at the Galerie Maeght in 1980.
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Together, they published the magazine Noise which brought together, under the direction of Didier Ottinger, the most prestigious signatures of artists, poets, writers and philosophers of the 1980s and 1990s. Their friendship in work produced magnificent exhibitions, including some very surprising, Imperial Museum of the Forbidden City of Beijing (a Japanese in the historic center of China!), Biennial of Sao Paulo, Baroque Church Museum of Avignon, National Gallery Museum of Bratislava, Slovakia... and more than 40 others.
Yoyo Maeght chose an ephemeral space to present Aki Kuroda's most recent works. The exhibition lasts only 5 days, from September 15 to 19, 2021, from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
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The Mr. A exhibition brings together a series of self-portraits, collages and paintings, completing the series of large formats presented last year in New York. Also on display are three large Rabbit paintings where all the strength and humor of Aki Kuroda come together. Two other series of paintings - City Lines and Crazy Birds will be presented in a joyful display.
For this series of large format collages, Aki Kuroda first made carborundum engravings, thus sculpting the paper which is then covered with a deep gray print. Then, randomly from the life of his workshop, he cut out, sometimes tore and pasted images sometimes from his archives, exhibition views, boxes, catalogs, and sometimes from Japanese magazines. All these elements, between the West and Asia, compose strange self-portraits.
Collage on engraving on paper, 120 x 80 cm, 2020
Collage on engraving on paper, 120 x 80 cm, 2020.
Collage on engraving on paper, 120 x 80 cm, 2020.
Collage on engraving on paper, 120 x 80 cm, 2020.
Collage on engraving on paper, 120 x 80 cm, 2020.
Collage on engraving on paper, 120 x 80 cm, 2020.
Yellow self-portrait, Acrylic on canvas, 196 x 130 cm, 2018-2019
Yellow self-portrait, Acrylic on canvas, 195 x 130 cm, 1992/2019.
Yellow self-portrait, Acrylic on canvas, 145 x 114 cm, 2019
Yellow self-portrait, Acrylic on canvas, 195 x 130 cm, 2019
Aki Kuroda, Yellow self-portrait, Mixed media on canvas, 100 x 81 cm, 2021.
Self-portrait, Acrylic on canvas, 195 x 130 cm, 2020.
Rabbit, Acrylic on canvas, 195 x 130 cm, 2020.
Rabbit, Acrylic on canvas, 195 x 130 cm, 2021.
Rabbit, Acrylic on canvas, 100 x 80 cm, 2021.
Rabbit, Acrylic on canvas, 190 x 130 cm, 2021.
Red Rabbit, Acrylic on canvas, 73 x 60 cm, 2019.
Alice Garden, Mixed media on canvas, 46 x 65 cm, 2021.
Untitled, Mixed on canvas, 38 x 46 cm, 2015.
Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, 81 x 100 cm, 2021.