Ryoko Aoki and Zon Ito

Ryoko Aoki, born in Hyogo in 1973, received an MFA in visual design from Kyoto University of Fine Art in 1999. Selected solo exhibitions include ‘Notebook forgotten at three Party Meeting’, Take Ninagawa, Tokyo (2018), ‘Green Pocket’, Take Ninagawa, Tokyo (2011), ‘Seeds of Wild Flower’, On Sundays, Tokyo (2010), ‘Hammer Projects: Ryoko Aoki’, The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Culture Center at UCLA, Los Angeles, (2005). Selected group exhibitions include ‘Collection - Contemporary Landscapes’, Natonal Museum of Art, Osaka (2017), ‘Tsubaki-kai’, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (annually from 2013 to 2017), ‘LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION’, Marc Foxx Galley, Los Angeles (2016), ‘documents 12’, Kassel (2007). Aoki’s work can be found in the public collections at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, among others.

Zon Ito, born in Osaka in 1971, graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts in 1996. Selected recent solo exhibitions include ‘The Strange Moves that We Make’, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (2016), Galerie Michael Werner, Trebbin, Germany (2016). Selected group shows include ‘Japanorama. A new vision on art since 1970’, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France (2017), ‘Asia Corridor Contemporary Art Exhibition’, Nijo Castle (Nijojo), Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto (2017), ‘Tsubaki-kai’, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (annually from 2013 to 2017), ‘The State of this World : Thought and the Arts’, Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, Hyogo (2016), 'Primary Field II’, The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama (2010), ‘Louisa Bufardeci & Zon Ito’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney (2009), ‘When Lives Become Form: Dialogue with The Future Brazil / Japan’, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2008). Ito’s works are included in the public collections at Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others.

Ryoko Aoki and Zon Ito have collaborated and exhibited in many institutions and art festivals including: ‘In Focus: Contemporary Japan’, Minneapolis Institue of Art, Minneapolis (2017), ‘Reborn Art Festival’, Ishinomaki, Miyagi (2017), ‘Fruitfulness’, Toyokawa City Sakuragaoka Museum, Aichi (2015), ‘TWO STICKS’, The Museum of Architecture, Wrocław (2015), ‘Re: Quest - Japanese Contemporary Art since the 1970s’, Museum of Art, Seoul National University, Seoul (2013). ‘Experimenta Speak to Me, 5th International Biennial of Media Art’, Project Space/Spare Room, Melbourne, Australia (2012), ‘The state one reaches by the age of 9, and the sunshine of those days’, Taka Ishii Gallery Kyoto (2011), ‘Ways of Worldmaking’, The National Museum of Art, Osaka (2011), ‘CAMP’, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Dusseldorf, Germany (2009), ‘FUSION: Architecture + Design in Japan’, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2004).

Hikotaro Kanehira is an independent curator based in Tokyo. Selected curated exhibitions and projects include ‘Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda’, statements, Tokyo (2017), ‘Troedsson Villa Mountain School 2016’, original concept by Tam Ochiai & Anne Eastman, statements, Tokyo (2016), ‘Nobuyoshi Araki: Love on the Left Eye’, co-curated with Toshi Shibata, Mitsubishi Artium, Fukuoka (2014), ‘Futoshi Miyagi: American Boyfriend’ (2013- ongoing), ‘Takashi Homma: New Documentary’, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa / Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery / Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (2011-2012). Kanehira has curated and published artists’ books and zines as an independent publisher for the works of Yasuto Masumoto, Ryoko Aoki, Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda, Erika Kobayashi, Nobutaka Aozaki and Shimon Minamikawa.