For Immediate Release
1018 Art is pleased to present the upcoming exhibition, Araki Flowers, featuring a selection of photographs from the Kakyuko series created in 1997 by Nobuyoshi Araki. This exhibition includes eleven unique metallic prints of close-up views of a variety of flowers in their last moments of bloom. Influenced by traditional Japanese art forms such as Ukiyo-e prints and the erotic Shunga art of the Seventeenth Century, Araki seeks to capture a pivotal moment of beauty and impart permanence to that which is fleeting. In the Kakyuko series, Araki’s sensitive depiction of the flowers has often been compared to portraiture. The intimate view of sensuous organic forms, coupled with the fertile state of flowers in the twilight of their bloom, reflect the artist’s ongoing preoccupation with sexuality and mortality. According to Kahitsukan, the director of the Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art, Araki's flowers are, “moribund even in the prime of their life,” and poignantly convey the transient nature of beauty and the inexorability of decline. Nobuyoshi Araki is considered one of the most significant and controversial contemporary photographers and has published more than 300 books documenting his work. Born in 1940, he continues to live and work in Tokyo, the city of his birth. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout Japan and abroad, including at the Cartier Foundation, Paris (1995); Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1997); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1999); Hayward Gallery, London (2001) and most recently, his retrospective at the Barbican Art Gallery in London 2005.