18, Murata is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Yuu Takamizawa.
Throughout his practice, Takamizawa has consistently treated the infrastructures, institutions, customs, and histories that surround art as both motif and support for his work. This stance is evident not only in his artworks themselves, but also in his activities as co-director of the gallery 4649.
In today’ s art world, forms of artistic expression have become increasingly diverse, such that a single standard of value or evaluation can no longer be applied. Yet, if we trace art history back to its sources, we inevitably arrive at painting. The conventions and systems established through painting have persisted, largely unchanged, even as artistic forms have multiplied over time. As a result, while institutions guarantee what “counts” as art, we are left unable to determine where we stand or how we ought to view works on our own, relying instead on ourselves or others as points of reference. In other words, it may be that we are rarely able to encounter artworks in any essential sense.
Furthermore, although the advent of “reproduction” in art brought about a profound transformation, the meaning of its existence remains unresolved. Neither makers nor viewers have yet determined how to position themselves in relation to it. Takamizawa’ s works, too, are not easily or immediately understood. Yet it is precisely this “unknowability” that opens up a horizon of thought—and that horizon itself becomes the work. How are we to measure such expanses? They are not something that can be compared with others; they are questions that confront each viewer as a subject in their own right.
Even if ten years have not yet passed since encountering Takamizawa’ s work, considered within its proper context it represents a dialogue with more than a century of art-historical practice. This exhibition explores the relationship between the artwork and the systems that sustain it, through installation-based presentation, the work’ s relation to the art market, the interventions of others, repeated motifs, and inherent dualities
高見澤ゆう(1990年東京生まれ) アートを取り巻くインフラ・慣習・歴史などをモチーフ/支持体に、オブジェ・映像・写真を通じて作品とモノの境界やオリジナリティの問題をテーマにしたインスタレーション形式の作品を発表し、 国内外で活動の場を広げている。 近年の個展・二人展に「Artificial Paradise」(XYZ collective, 東京, 2024)、「Copies」(King’s Leap, NY, 2022)、imlaborでの個展 (東京, 2021)、4649での個展(東京, 2021)、グループ展に「視線の尽きる涯」(Cherry Hill, ケルン, 2025)、「Tokio Hotel」(Galerie Tenko Presents, ベルリン, 2024)、「No sleeper seats, that's a mattress」(Cherry Hill, ケルン, 2024)、「Presque Partout」(FRACロレーヌ, メッス, 2024)、「In The Shadows of Tall Necessities」(Bonner Kunstverein, ボン, 2022)など。パブリックコレクションにFRACロレーヌ。 2017年からはキュラトリアルプロジェクト4649の共同ディレクターの一人としても活動する。
Yuu Takamizawa (b. 1990, Tokyo) Takamizawa presents installation-based works that take the infrastructures, conventions, and histories surrounding art as both motif and support, exploring the boundaries between artwork and object as well as questions of originality through objects, video, and photography. He has been active both in Japan and internationally. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include Artificial Paradise (XYZ collective, Tokyo, 2024), Copies (King’s Leap, New York, 2022), a solo exhibition at imlabor (Tokyo, 2021), and a solo exhibition at 4649 (Tokyo, 2021). Group exhibitions include At the End of the Gaze (Cherry Hill, Cologne, 2025), Tokio Hotel (Galerie Tenko Presents, Berlin, 2024), No sleeper seats, that’s a mattress (Cherry Hill, Cologne, 2024), Presque Partout (FRAC Lorraine, Metz, 2024), and In The Shadows of Tall Necessities (Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, 2022), among others. Public Collections include: FRAC Lorraine, Metz. Since 2017, he has also been active as a co-director of the curatorial project 4649 in Tokyo.