Family Delaive presents: ''Ayako Rokkaku, Dreams in my Hand''

On view from December 2, 2023 to March 24, 2024 at Hangaram Museum of Art, Seoul Arts Center

SEOUL, South Korea, Nov. 30, 2023 /PRNewswire/ --  C.C.O.C. (CEO Kang Wook Kang, www.ccoc.co.kr), an exhibition specialist, announced today that they will present "Ayako Rokkaku, Dreams in my Hand" at the Hangaram Museum of Art, Seoul Arts Center, from December 2 (Saturday) to March 24 (Sunday), 2024. This is the largest solo exhibition of Ayako Rokkaku's work in Korea, featuring approximately 130 original works collected by the Delaive family of the Netherlands, including her early drawings and large-scale objects.

Ayako Rokkaku, painting spring with her hands

Ayako Rokkaku is an artist from Chiba Prefecture, Japan, known for her unique "finger painting" method of working, in which she improvises by applying acrylic paint with her bare hands without sketching. With no formal art training, she began painting at the age of 20 to find a way to express herself beyond words. Active in various parts of the world, including Tokyo, Berlin, Porto, and Amsterdam, she is a sought-after artist for collectors and set a new personal record on the 52nd Japanese SBI Auction in 2022 with JPY 160,000,000. She first came to prominence when she participated in the GEISAI Art Fair organized by Takashi Murakami's Kaikai Kiki in 2006, and has been hailed as representing the next generation of Japanese artists, following in the footsteps of Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami and Yayoi Kusama.

<Ayako Rokkaku. Dreams in My Hand> will feature more than 130 works, including some of the best of her early works, some top-level later canvasses, collected by the Delaive family since 2006, such as Untitled (2020), painted on a 2-meter circular canvas, depicting a girl lying in a field of flowers on a spring day and is filled with colors that evoke the warmth of spring. Also on display will be a selection of painted objects including three large scale works over 3 meters in height, including "Sculpture with two ghost rabbits (2011)," a 2.3-meter-high large-scale sculpture of a girl. All of these works are rarely seen in the art market and are highly anticipated by Korean fans.

Six different sections

Upon entering the exhibition, a sand art animation that tells the story of Ayako Rokkaku's journey from Japan to the Netherlands is shown first, followed by a photo wall that shows the meeting between the self-taught artist and gallerist Nico Delaive. After the introductory section, the first section, 'Little Girl with Bare Feet', will showcase some of the artist's earliest works. Twenty-three early original paintings are on display, including two works from 2006.

In the second section, 'Dreaming Fingers,' you'll see some of the most iconic works that come to mind when you think of Ayako Rokkaku. The works are made from a variety of everyday materials, including canvas, cardboard, T-shirts, vinyl, and plates, et cetera. The third section, 'To the Wider World,' introduces the original paintings that the artist worked on while igniting his passion for art after leaving Tokyo and starting a new life in Amsterdam, the city of Van Gogh and Rembrandt. Three large 3-meter-high original paintings by Ayako Rokkaku, who despite her small stature love to paint large-scale works, will be on display, and her Amsterdam studio will be recreated as a photo zone for added enjoyment. 

The next section, 'My Friends,' features the 'About Us' works. 'About Us' is the title of an animation created by the artist in collaboration with Tokyo-based music label contrarede. The animated work tells the story of a girl who bridges the gap between past and future time, and features autobiographical characters from the artist's life. The 18-minute film will also be screened in the media room. Upon entering the gallery through a door that looks exactly like the one at Gallery Delaive in Amsterdam, you'll find the 'Delaive Family' section. There's a photo wall that shows the decades-long friendship between the Delaive family and Ayako Rokkaku, as well as portraits of the Delaive family painted by the artist with an intimate feel. The sixth and final section, 'The Beginning of Spring,' will feature recent works created between 2021 and 2022.

"Ayako Rokkaku can be described as an artist who calls for spring," says Kang Wook Kang, CEO of CCOC, who organized the exhibition. "She creates a dreamy, surreal world without sketches and instead improvises, making the viewer feel the lovely spring, and we expect this winter to be warmer with Ayako Rokkaku's exhibition."

For the digital catalogue with the following link visit: https://issuu.com/gallerydelaive/docs/306007_cataloog_prive_collectie_ayako_digitaal?fr=sZWVlOTY4MzAzNzU

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