© 2006 Mr./ Kaikai Kiki All rights Reserved
Mr., Toughness cover, acrylic on wood
  		Robert Hodgins, Study in blue and orange, Oil on canvas
 

 

PRESS RELEASE

REVIEW – 34 Long, Cape Town 

34 LONG, 8 August – 9 September 2006
Don’t miss REVIEW, 34 LONG’s August exhibition, if interesting art is what you are looking for. 

Aimed at introducing new work from the international circuit in addition to showing selected works from our inventory, the show will have no evening opening. Viewing times are Tuesday to Friday 9h00 to 17h00 and Saturdays 10h00 to 14h00. 

An international highlight of the show is a work by renowned Japanese artist Mr. That’s right, Mr with a full stop. (His real name, which he prefers not to use professionally, is Masakatu Iwamoto.)

Mr. is a protégé of Takashi Murakami, Japan’s best known contemporary artist-designer. He was born in Cupa in 1969, and gained exposure to all kinds of contemporary influences from Italian arte povera (Chia, Clemente) to early American pop (Johns, Rauschenberg) as an art student before he participated in Murakami’s super flat productions at Kaikai Kiki in Tokyo. He recycled all manner of disused objects to create artworks while learning all he could about computer animation, finding the dichotomy between ‘high’ and ‘low’ art intensely disturbing. He found his creative solution in ordinary everyday life and produced 18-hour-long videos of television weathermen, anchormen and announcers. On the verge of making a career as a manga (Japanese comics) cartoonist, he found himself returning to ‘second-hand dealing’: making furtive drawings of waif-like Lolita figures, manga-style, on discarded receipts, subway ticket stubs and fragments of packaging material. After working as an assistant in Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki workshop he gained recognition and his sketches on unwanted remnants and bits and pieces have become sought-after by art collectors world-wide. They remain fascinated by his ironic - or is it sarcastic, or just plain weird – images combining Heidi and Peter with Lolita and Casper the friendly ghost on what appears to be litter – or is it flotsam and jetsam? Come and view Toughness cover and decide for yourself.

Also on exhibition will be a hand-coloured spot etching, Xylene Cyanol dye solution, edition of only 65, by Damien Hirst. Hirst, according to Art Review (November 2005), is the hottest living artist on the planet today. Art Review (p76) says this about Hirst’s spot paintings: “ … his formaldehyde animals and medicine cabinets are undisputed museum pieces, [but] the popularity of his spot paintings defies the art market’s usual regard for rarity. At the last count, there were almost 500 spot paintings, but the more spots there are, the more iconic they become and the more people want them. In fact, the most popular item in Tate Modern shops is Hirst’s spot badge; they’ve sold over 20,000 of them”…be spotted at 34LONG. 

Alongside astounding new work by Marlene Dumas from Holland, there will be some by the young Chiho Aoshima who, like Mr., is associated with the Kaikai Kiki collective of Takashi Murakami. She may be young, but she is in demand. International art ratings indicate that Aoshima may soon, very soon, become one of the most sought-after artists internationally. Her work has not been exhibited in South Africa before. Come along to view it at 34 LONG. 

Exhibiting cutting edge international art has become 34 LONG’s cutting edge. Our December 2005 exhibition entitled South East introduced local art buyers to the work of Feng Zhengjie from China, at prices which now seem absurd: R 25 000 for a 50 x 50cm oil on canvas and R 100 000 for a 150 x 150cm canvas. Two astute buyers snapped up those works. International demand for Feng’s work has skyrocketed in the last few months, and similar works, if one should be lucky enough to get them, are currently valued at between R 250 000 and R 600 000 and still increasing. Besides the phenomenal appreciation, could you think of a better hedge for fluctuating Rands?

34LONG is the Gallery to approach if you are searching for that very special piece of art that will gain value on your wall.
All images © the artists, 2006
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34 Long Street    Cape Town    South Africa 
For more information contact Andries Loots:   tel. +27 82 354 1500    fineart@34long.com

Gallery hours Tuesday - Friday 9h00-17h00 Saturday 10h-14h00
or by appointment tel. +27 21 426 4594