Kyohei Abe

USA
Bio Statement

Imaginary scape

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#4, 2008

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#5, 2008

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#6, 2008

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#13, 2008

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#15, 2008

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#9, 2009

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#16, 2008

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#12, 2008

Kyohei Abe: imaginary scape: untitled#17, 2008

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Kyohei Abe Bio

Awards | Solo Exhibitions | Group Exhibitions | Collections | Education

Awards
2008	Daimler Artist Travel Grant, Changing Cities: Berlin Exchange

1999	Center for Creative studies Achievement Award, Detroit, MI

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Solo Exhibitions
2012	Minimal Landscape, Paint Creek Center for the Arts, Rochester, MI

2011	Einfach Schoni,, Ute Art Space, Stuttgart, Germany

2011	Modern Translation, Center Gallery, Detroit, MI

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Group Exhibitions
2010	In Review, Gallery 339, Philadelphia, PA

2010	Photo Forum, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX

2010	In Review, Gallery339, Philadelphia, PA

2009	Art Channel Gallery, Beijing, China

2009	Secret City, Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI

2009	Collected, Anton Art Center, Mount Clemens, MI

2009	Vienna Art Fair, Vienna, Austria

2009	Hot, O’born Contemporary Gallery, Toronto, ON, Canada

2008	Eva Bracke Gallery, Berlin, Germany

2008	Moving wall, Museum of New Art, Pontiac, MI

2008	Oakland University Art Gallery, Rochester, MI

2008	Changing Cities, Galerie Lisi Hammerie, Bregenz, Austria

2006	SEARCH, Meadowbrook Art Gallery, Rochester, MI

2006	Michigan Now, Michigan Institute of Art, Pontiac, MI

2005	Main Program Exhibition, International Festival of Photography, Lodz, Poland

2003	Biennial Actual Size, Detroit Contemporary, Detroit, MI

2002	Link, Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit, Detroit, MI

2001	Photographic Processes III, Period Gallery, Omaha NE

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Collections

College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

The West Collection, Oaks, PA

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX

Detroit Art Institute of Arts , Detroit, MI

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Education
1995 - 1999	Center for Creative Studies, BFA in Photography

2000 - 2002	Cranbrook Academy of Art, MFA in Photography

Kyohei Abe Statement

Artist Statement
Most of my images are built upon a formula, a structure of both space and content. I was originally trained as an architect and designer, so I tend to build compositions that are clean, well ordered, and simple in content and composition. In my creative process, I always look for juxtapositions and interrelationships that create new perceptions and new meanings. I always discover a structure, or some form of order within. I then look for a more complex system existing within the simpler structure. At the end, the results of this exchange of elemental play between images, space and myself are attractive. Photography is a medium that fosters the belief that we have the ability to preserve reality, when in fact the reality we thought to be recorded actually exists in the conceptual space between viewer and imagery. My inspiration comes from the history of paintings – particularly 17th-century Dutch, Flemish and Spanish still-lives, which I’ve always thought quite contemporary. These particular paintings attract me because they require a kind of monocular view to understand everything that exists in front of me. When finding a connection between photography and 17th-century Northern European painting, the former provides a realization of the way we see, while the latter reinforces that way of seeing. In the process of creating my imagery, I work with the idea of the paradox between control and development. Throughout the process of the creation of my imagery, everything must be controlled, a parallel that I see in the tradition of 17th century Northern European paintings. Simultaneously I seek a dialogue between objects, the camera, and myself during the process. This mixture of concepts creates a new meaning. I am attracted to the diversion created by that exchange. At a glance, the result is that my photographs create an ambiguous and fictitious environment, which is something that really interests me.

Kyohei Abe Books
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