One of my dust paintings will be in the Bye Bye 2020 group show at the Launch Pad gallery in Yokohama. If you have not been to this alternative gallery, I recommend checking it out.

*****If you remember the continent of Australia was literally on fire in January. There was loss of life, a tremendous amount of physical devastation along with millions of animals, insects and forestry wiped out.
That feels like a decade ago. We also had the impeachment of the American president, sudden and tragic losses of cultural figures from sports to cinema, music, art and fashion.
Then came March and the Covid-19 virus arrived and completely upended life as we knew it. A pandemic that’s killed hundreds of thousands, infected millions and exposed how fragile our social fabric is. It’s instilled a level of anxiety that our systems we count on to protect us don’t. Leaders worldwide don’t know what do, while others stopped trying to help altogether.
And, billionaires made more billions somehow.
Economies are tumbling, political and social instability runs rampant, most notably in the United States on the big stage and in places like Guatemala and Bolivia on the smaller stage. Again, no one seems to know what to do and citizens worldwide are angry.
As if this were not enough, the threat of climate change erasing human beings from the planet by the end of the century marches forward at an alarming rate.
Needless to say, most of us have spent an extraordinary amount of time indoors this year either numbing our brains with Netflix or YouTube, or possibly thinking deeply about life and death, maybe online making connections on social media to feel less isolated. Probably a combination of all those things for a lot of people.
We decided to hold our last exhibition of the year as a group show to say “Bye Bye 2020”. We put out an open invitation to artists to express something about the year 2020. We chose to accept work unseen and without restrictions. Unpredictable like 2020, it feels like the only way to do this.
Hopefully we’ll see some optimism, some pessimism, some humor, some heartbreak; any and all reactions are perfectly valid in a year none of us have experienced before.
We hope it serves some kind of catharsis for both the artists and the viewers. We look forward to seeing the work and having our guests come to discuss, contemplate and vent about 2020 up to now.
No opening reception this time. Feel free to come hang out at the gallery any time during business hours.
If you have any question, feel free to contact us for further info.
Thank you all in advance.
Launch Pad Gallery
5-186-8 ISHIKAWACHO, YOKOHAMA 045-641-1511 13:00-19:00/FRI-MON/ 13:00~19:00
****
Participating artists in alphabetical order (by surname)
足立 真輝 (Masaki Adachi)
相原 康宏 (Yasuhiro Aihara)
Calvin Birchfiel
ちとく (Chitoku)
Deanna Gabiga
樋口昌美 (Masami Higuchi)
堀江 和真 (Kazuma Horie)
Arthur Huang
岩間 正明 (Masa’aki Iwama)
Eva Li
Janette Maxey
Shuichi Miyazaki
三浦かおり (Kaori Miura)
奥山由佳 (Yuka Okuyama)
シダミホコ (Miyoko Shida)
篠原 敬典 (Takanori Shinohara)
Bimal Shrestha
Nick West
柳川 たみ (Tami Yanagawa)
Michelle Zacharias
Nina Zdanovic
and others
「Bye Bye 2020!」
2020/12/4〜14
https://www.facebook.com/events/732773530659492