Ohtsubo Kosen

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*A Jungle Of Ikebana Wires*, 1985

Image courtesy of the artist.

*Prickle prickle pine needles*, 1980

Image courtesy of the artist.

*Radish Death- coteque*, 1994

Image courtesy of the artist.

Education

1965

Bachelor of Science degree in Electronic Engineering from Tokyo Denki University

1960

Ryusei Fukamoto Yoshimoto Hanaizumi

Publication

2001

“Ikebana Shinseiki No.3”(special issue) Seibundo Shinko Sha

1995

“Modern Flower Artist 4 Kosen Ohtsubo” Kyoto Shoin

1989

“Contemporary Ikebana I” (co-authored) Fujin Gahou Sha

1981

“Plant&Man” (self-selected works)

Residency

2007

Special adviser for Cultural Exchange of Japanese Government

Selected Solo Exhibitions

1997

Organic Matters, Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at Minneapolis, USA

1989

Mobach Gallery at Utrecht, Holland

1985

Nordyland Contemporary Art Museum at Aalborg, Denmark

1982-1985

Gallery Te, Runami Gallery, Maki Gallery, and other galleries in Tokyo

Selected Group Exhibitions

2005

Entrance Hall Exhibition, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse, Japan

2003

Japanese Contemporary Ikebana, Wave Hill in New York, USA Wave Hill

2002

Group F Exhibition, Sunny Hall at Nippori, Tokyo

2001

Ikebana TODAY New Wave, Shintoshi Hall at Yokohama, Japan

2000

Quest in the GREEN 2000, QUEST at Omotesando, Tokyo

Ryusei Outfield Ikebana Exhibition, Mendocino, USA

1999

Impulsive Solo Exhibition, My Funeral·x - Buttu Trick Bar at Shibuya, Tokyo

1997

Ikebana as an Expression, Nagoya Citizen Gallery

1993

Flower Performance, Showa Kinen Park at Tachikawa, Tokyo

Runami Selection ‘86, Runami Gallery at Ginza, Tokyo

1992

Sensuous Action on Plant, (with Yasuhiro Takeda), Gallery Alpha M, Japan

1985

Hara Annual, Hara Museum at Shinagawa, Tokyo

1985-1988

Ikebana Today, Seibu Department Store at Ikebukuro, Tokyo

1973

Ikebana Independant Exhibition, Toshima-en, Tokyo

1970-1979

Kodo Art Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum

1970-1975

Group Ado Exhibition, Ryusei Kaikan at Ichigaya, Tokyo

Lectures and other activities

2016

Ryusei Ikebana Japan 130 Anniversary

2002

Ikebana International Convention, Roppongi, Tokyo

2001

Florida, USA

1999

Ewa Women’s University in Seoul, Korea

Portland, USA

1997

University of Minnesota in USA

1996

Forum chair person of “Ikebana International Convention”, Kyoto

1995

Nagoya Zokei Art University, Japan

Ikebana International Convention, London, England

1994

Ikebana International Convention, Hong Kong

1992

Musashino Art University, Japan

New Orleans, USA

1989

Tokyo Zokei Art University, Japan

1983

Valencia, Spain

1982

Hong Kong

1970

Varanashi, India

1960

Became a disciple of Kasen Yoshimura, head master of Ryusei-ha School


2024-09-27	James T. Hong at Argo Factory, Tehran
	I Am Standing in the Middle of the Information Highway and Laughing is a new exhibition curated by Raha Raissnia and Martin Germann, opening August 16 through October 18 at the Argo Factory in Tehran. Taking its title from late artist Jonas Mekas’ Manifesto Anti-100 years of Cinema, a performative exhibition in Tehran will unfold over two different episodes. Its main aim is to celebrate the unbound energy of collaborative work and friendship on the one hand and moments of reflection and stillness on the other. Its point of departure is the Manichean binary between darkness and light, as sine qua non condition for the existence of technologically mediated images. The second chapter of the exhibition, curated by Martin Germann, opens on Friday, September 27, with Marco Fusinato, James T. Hong, Tiffany Sia and Sam Lewitt. Read more …
2024-09-22	Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork in Slipper, Personal Space, Vallejo, California
	Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork is participting in the group exhibition Slipper at Personal Space, Vallejo, California. Featuring works by: David Bayus, Lemia Monet Bodden, Kari Cholnoky, Ximaps Dong, Erik Frydenborg, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, Albert Herter, Catalina Ouyang, and Elina Vainio. “Slipping between registers, like prophesy, some excessive field leaves deposits in our shared existence. It takes form, in the shape of slips of the tongue, or a slipped disc, articulated and yet still monstrous. The environment is overpopulated by tools and weapons that encode our lust or aggression into metal, plastic, or paper, infused with the unspeakable. Here is a collection of objects, of various media, that cannot be fully accounted for, that leave a remainder or lapsus, that aren’t completely discrete, and sit like cairns on a landscape, death’s representatives, recording trajectories between past and future. Marking the differences that matter, that can be utilized to situate oneself and guide a famished party. Small signs, like fragments of fossils, can refer to immensity.” – Albert Herter Read more …
2024-09-20	Vunkwan Tam in Improvisation at Inside Out Museum, Beijing, curated by Carol Yinghua Lu
	Improvisation is on view through January 19th, 2025 at the Inside Out Museum in Beijing. It was curated by Carol Yinghua Lu with Na Rongkun, Sining Zhu, Cao Liyao, Li Huiyi and Sun Yuhan. Participating artists and collectives include Cang Xin, Chen Liang, Chen Zhou, Ergao (He Qiwo), Gao Fu, He Liping, He Ruijun, Hu Yiyao, Liu Zhan, Luo Lin, M Art Group, Ma Liuming, Pak Sheung Chuen, Peng Xueying, Rong Rong, The Cement Park, Song Xiaohong, Song Dong, Vunkwan Tam, Tong Tianqing, Wang Shihua, Wang Sishun, Yorkson, Zhang Huan, Zhang Wei, Zhang Zhihui, Zhong Yunshu, Zhou Bin, Zhu Fadong, Zuoxiao Zuzhou. Improvisation is one of the characteristics of art, as well as a method of creative practice. It highlights an artistic process where the artist finishes their work immediately and swiftly, using everything at hand, when the inspiration, provoked by an external stimulus or an internal impulse, hits unpreparedly and uncontrollably. In the context of traditional Chinese music culture, due to its unique system of notation and inheritance, improvisation was once a ubiquitous technique in musical practice. Improvisation is a cross-cultural phenomenon that is probably as old as the human race. This is the reason why we encounter improvisation frequently throughout different historical moments and creative activities in the long history of art. From the Dada’s rejection of logic and introduction of chaos and irrationality into their creative practice, to the Situationists who, out of an ideal to fight against Capitalism’s alienation of the individual, advocated the pursuit of genuine desires, the experience of life, and the sense of adventure. People can see that improvisation is the method, the idea, the principle, and the real life itself. Read more …
2024-09-19	Empty Gallery Staff Announcement
	Empty Gallery is pleased to announce the appointment of Alexander Lau as senior director, and Kaitlin Chan as director. Lau has served as director of the gallery, and its associated label Empty Editions, for over nine years, and been foundational in the development of our exhibition program and artist roster. Based in New York and Hong Kong, Lau also sits on the board of Primary Information (NYC). Chan joined the gallery in 2020 as associate, and has since contributed to over ten exhibitions as an artist liaison, as well as through public programming, communications, art fairs and sales. Chan is also a cultural worker who creates comics and lectures on self-publishing amongst other topics.
2024-09-19	Henry Shum in Bodily Powers at Crèvecœur, Paris
	Bodily Powers is now on view at Galerie Crevecouer (9 rue des Cascades, Paris) through November 2, 2024. Participating artists include Koichi Enomoto, Ester Knapová, Stanislava Kovalcikova, Autumn Ramsey, Emma Reyes, Margaret Salmon and Henry Shum. Read more …
2024-09-17	Taro Masushio in formazione di forme.. curated by Matilde Guidelli-Guidi at Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna
	formazione di forme.. curated by Matilde Guidelli-Guidi at Felix Gaudlitz, Vienna, as part of curated by 2024, is on view from 17 September through October 19, 2024. The exhibition features works by Alighiero Boetti, Aria Dean, Taro Masushio, and Samson Young, chosen for their distinct approach to form-making. Masushio took the Untitled (Youth) pictures in San Francisco in the early aughts, at a time of youthful infatuation with the aesthetics and techniques of formalist photography. He shot the SoMa scene through that lens: analog camera and the zone system, the body flattened and closely cropped in black-and-white symmetries. Finding those negatives in his archive last summer arose feelings of embarrassment toward his puppy love days. An embarrassment that he worked through, coming face to face with that innocent attraction to formalism, and by extension to a younger self, that is akin to kink. So that in the printing process, he treated the negatives to further heighten the compositional elements in ways that replay the darkroom devotion of his youth. Masushio said: “Vis-à-vis my personal history, I want to propose a provocation of (modernist?) aesthetics and the taboo of being a formalist, which I thought was kind of kinky. (A kind of parallel between concept/ form vs norm/ taboo). But there is always a bit of embarrassment about making these kinds of (po-mo) gestures, too.” The form/ affect dyad shifts valence from attraction to embarrassment to kink in the reception of these works. Which is real? This fractal approach to the archive is typical of his overall method. An earlier body of work emerged from fortuitously finding, in a temporary lodging, a box of prints and recognizing them as the work of the late Jun’icha En’ya—an elusive figure and one of the earliest Japanese photographers of homoerotica. A visit to En’ya’s environs in Osaka generated Masushio’s works: photographs of pencil-traced snapshots that he furtively took in En’ya’s archives, and still-life pictures of the objects that En’ya owned or that he might have. Between Masushio and the En’ya “idea” there is no articulated relationship of influence. Form escapes filiation there: the pressure of the archival materials and the pencil pressing against paper. Read more …
2024-09-07	Tishan Hsu in Interface Remix, MoCA Toronto
	Tishan Hsu’s solo exhibition Interface Remix at MOCA Toronto opens to the public on Sunday, September 8.  “Interface Remix” showcases key works from the past five decades of Hsu’s career alongside never-before-seen creations that explore themes of transformation and alienation. In his first ever Canadian solo exhibition, Hsu’s groundbreaking work navigates the intersection of technology and the human body through his multidisciplinary practice spanning painting, sculpture, and installation. Hsu will also be in conversation with Alex Da Corte on September 8th at 2PM in an accompanying program. Read more …
2024-09-04	Works by Mickael Marman, Emmanuel Louisnord Desir, & Cici Wu at 47 Canal
	Cici Wu’s Lovers Revolt, Lovers Resolve (Reincarnations of Lantern), 2020, is now on view at 47 Canal through September 14 in a group presentation with Mickael Marman and Emmanuel Louisnord Desir. Read more …
2024-08-23	Jes Fan in Dream States, Groundspace of The Metropolitan Museum of Manila
	Jes Fan’s Bivalve II is now on view at Dream States, Groundspace of The Metropolitan Museum of Manila, through January 2025. Artists: Jes Fan, Katharina Grosse, Michael Ho, and Olafur Eliasson. Special thanks to Tim Tan.
2024-08-15	Raha Raissnia at Argo Factory, Pejman Foundation
	I Am Standing in the Middle of the Information Highway and Laughing is a new exhibition curated by Raha Raissnia and Martin Germann, opening August 16 through October 18 at the Argo Factory in Tehran. Taking its title from late artist Jonas Mekas’ Manifesto Anti-100 years of Cinema, a performative exhibition in Tehran will unfold over two different episodes. Its main aim is to celebrate the unbound energy of collaborative work and friendship on the one hand and moments of reflection and stillness on the other. Its point of departure is the Manichean binary between darkness and light, as sine qua non condition for the existence of technologically mediated images. For the first chapter of the exhibition, a number of artists have been carefully selected by Raha Raissnia to accompany two of her own works. In the spirit of Mekas’s Manifesto, they are all friends whom she has known personally from many years of living and working in New York City. Artists: Jonas Mekas, Raha Raissnia, Andrew Chalk, Pip Chodorov, Martha Colburn, Milton Cruz, Albert Herter, Andrew Lampert, Jeanne Liotta, Timo Van Luijk, Panagiotis Mavridis, Jordan Mintzer, Jason Babak Mohaghegh, Stom Sogo and Justina Zukauskaite Read more …

Bodily Powers is now on view at Galerie Crevecouer (9 rue des Cascades, Paris) through November 2, 2024.

Education

Publication

Residency

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group Exhibitions

Lectures and other activities