VISUAL ARTS + MUSEUMS

Rice University Art Gallery has commissioned Japanese artist Yasuaki Onishi to create a site-specific installation to coincide with the Grand Opening of the Asia Society Texas Center’s new Houston headquarters designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. On view April 14 - June 24, 2012, Yasuaki Onishi’s exhibition - reverse of volume (RG) - is being curated by Joshua Fischer, Assistant Curator at Rice Gallery. Opening reception, Friday, April 13, 5pm-7pm. EXTENDED TO JULY 27.

In his “reverse of volume” installations, Onishi uses the simplest materials – translucent plastic sheeting, strings of black glue, and fishing line – to create monumental forms that resemble mountains or clouds floating in space. His process of “casting the invisible” involves draping the sheeting over objects, which are removed to leave only their impressions.

Onishi views this process of “reversing” sculpture to be a meditation on the nature of the negative space, or void, left behind.

ABOUT THE ARTIST - Yasuaki Onishi studied sculpture at University of Tsukuba and Kyoto City University of Arts. He has had solo exhibitions throughout Japan and internationally, and his work was included in Ways of Worldmaking (2011), at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (NMAO). His most recent solo exhibition in the United States was in 2012 at the The Marlin and Regina Miller Gallery at Kutztown University in Kutztown, Pennsylvania.

In 2010, Onishi was the recipient of a United States-Japan Foundation Fellowship that included a residency at the Vermont Studio Center, as well as a grant from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation Inc., New York.

Pictured: Yasuaki Onishi, DETAIL reverse of volume, 2012, 320 x 823 x 1074 cm, Glue, plastic sheet, The Marlin and Regina Miller Gallery, Kutztown, Pennsylvania.