Backwoods Gallery

Opening Friday: BLUE PERIOD Hiroyasu Tsuri / @t_w_o_o_n_e Please join us this Friday evening for the opening reception of Hiroyasu Tsuri’s new solo exhibition ‘Blue Period’ from 6pm - 9pm. DM us to join the catalogue waitlist and visit our website to learn more. Artwork: Tutto Passa Hiroyasu Tsuri 2023 Acrylic on canvas 200 x 200cm Thanks to @konpiramaru for the support 🥂

Opening Friday: BLUE PERIOD Hiroyasu Tsuri / @t_w_o_o_n_e 23.06.23 - 09.07.23 Hiroyasu Tsuri is a Japanese (b. 1985 Yokohama) contemporary artist who’s work stands out for its embodiment of hybridity. It blurs polarities such as East and West, studio practice and street art, representation and abstraction. He is also well known as TWOONE. Tsuri lives and works from Sant’Elia a Pianisi, Italy. Since 2014 Tsuri has been based in Europe where he continues to experiment with materials and mediums and push his art to new levels. His artworks have been acquired by The National Gallery of Victoria and by the City of Yarra, Australia as part of their permanent collections. Visit our website to learn more and DM us to join the catalogue waitlist. Follow: @t_w_o_o_n_e Artwork: L’Aurore Hiroyasu Tsuri Acrylic on Canvas, 2023 100 x 100 x 3.5cm

That’s a wrap on OBUJE - Semifunctional Form 📦 Big thanks to curators @ion_fukazawa & @alichyan for their expertise and guidance from Tajimi, Japan 🇯🇵 🙏 It was an absolute pleasure to show such a unique and exciting group of ceramicists from Tajimi. Thank you to Rie Aizawa, Ion Fukazawa, Junpei Hiraoka, Jun Matsumura, Makiko Nagai, Namika Nakai, Tomoya Sakai & Masatomo Toi for sharing your incredible work with us! Learn more and view available pieces via the link in our bio. Artwork: TOKKURI ARTIFICIAL ROCK FORMATION #03 Ion Fukazawa 2023 porcelain and black clay 21 × 15.5 × 17 cm Signed Wooden Box

Final Weekend: OBUJE - Semifunctional Form Curated by @ion_fukazawa & @alichyan Featuring: Rie Aizawa, Ion Fukazawa, Junpei Hiraoka, Jun Matsumura, Makiko Nagai, Namika Nakai, Tomoya Sakai & Masatomo Toi. "Obuje linguistically foregrounds the Japanese context and its history of ceramic materials, and grants makers the freedom to align with or distance themselves from Western art and a broader identification as sculpture. And like all of Japan’s ceramics and broader artistic history, obuje is a fluid site absorbing global influences, like Chinese Cizhou vases and European abstraction—more of a busy port than an untouched island.” - Alison Groves DM us to view the catalogue and visit our website to learn more. Artworks: ROUND SAKE CUP 01 -05 Makiko Nagai 2023 stoneware 3.5 × 7.3 × 7 cm each Signed Wooden Tomobako Box Follow: @makiatelier

Now Showing: OBUJE - Semifunctional Form Curated by @ion_fukazawa & @alichyan Featuring: Rie Aizawa, Ion Fukazawa, Junpei Hiraoka, Jun Matsumura, Makiko Nagai, Namika Nakai, Tomoya Sakai & Masatomo Toi. "Obuje linguistically foregrounds the Japanese context and its history of ceramic materials, and grants makers the freedom to align with or distance themselves from Western art and a broader identification as sculpture. And like all of Japan’s ceramics and broader artistic history, obuje is a fluid site absorbing global influences, like Chinese Cizhou vases and European abstraction—more of a busy port than an untouched island.” - Alison Groves DM us to view the catalogue and visit our website to learn more. Artworks: Accumulation I & II @jpcheearo 2023 Porcelain 27 x 22 x 22cm each

Open this weekend: SIGNS OF LIFE @thomascivilian "There are many uses of official colonial symbols from Australian history in the exhibition. I’ve aimed to decompose these symbols and find alternatives. For example the Eel painting with text ‘Back & Forth’, the Yabby painting with text ‘Reverse Acceleration’ and the Squid Ink drawings – all these artworks reverence animals which can move fast backwards. I see them as powerful alternative symbolism to the Kangaroo and Emu that are used in the Australian Coat of Arms - animals that where chosen because they can only move forwards. I feel like there can be a lot of moving backwards, to move forwards. Some things need to slow down in Australia, and do so fast. The over development, the land clearing, the mining, the fishing, the road building, the polluting - all needs to slow down fast, in fact move backwards.” – Tom Civil DM us to view the catalogue. Artwork: Anguilla Australis Acrylic and Aerosol on Linen 2023 90 x 121 x 4cm

Now Showing: SIGNS OF LIFE @thomascivilian Open daily this week, 12pm - 6pm. "I have been wanting to explore more my own personal history as a non-Indigenous person with early farming and land owning heritage - particularly on one side of the family in the Hunter Region and North Western NSW. I recently got an incredible family history book which some family members made and it inspired me to look into this further. The two larger mapping paintings BIRD’S EYE VIEW and RED LINE THROUGH speak to this idea of dividing the land up into rectangular ownership - and the roll of farmers and early land ownership in Australia to claim and hold Indigenous land. To build fences, clear trees, plough land, plant crops, herd stock - with guns ready.” – Tom Civil Email or DM us to view the catalogue: info@backwoods.gallery

Now Showing: SIGNS OF LIFE @thomascivilian "There are many uses of official colonial symbols from Australian history in the exhibition. I’ve aimed to decompose these symbols and find alternatives. For example the Eel painting with text ‘Back & Forth’, the Yabby painting with text ‘Reverse Acceleration’ and the Squid Ink drawings – all these artworks reverence animals which can move fast backwards. I see them as powerful alternative symbolism to the Kangaroo and Emu that are used in the Australian Coat of Arms - animals that where chosen because they can only move forwards. I feel like there can be a lot of moving backwards, to move forwards. Some things need to slow down in Australia, and do so fast. The over development, the land clearing, the mining, the fishing, the road building, the polluting - all needs to slow down fast, in fact move backwards.” – Tom Civil Artwork: Cherax Destructor Tom Civil 2023 Acrylic and Aerosol on Linen 90 × 120.5 × 4 cm

Now Showing: OBUJE - SEMIFUNCTIONAL FORM Emergent Sodeisha Lineage Japanese Ceramicists Curated by Ion Fukazawa and Alison Groves 26.05.2023 ~ 11.06.2023 Featuring: Rie Aizawa, Junpei Hiraoka, Jun Matsumura, Maki Nagai, Namika Nakai, Tomoya Sakai, Masatomo Toi and Ion Fukazawa The emerging generation of Japanese ceramicists infuses new narratives into a rich history and tradition of working with clay. Trained by Sodeisha lineage ceramicists, the ceramicists in this exhibition inherit the pursuit of technique and material experimentation as a means to express their relationship with clay. Within these boundaries, freedom to flirt with functionality and categorisation grants endless possibilities. This approach to making eludes tidy English labels of art, design or craft to invite a slower consideration of the objects. Within and beyond Western conceptions of art, the work is grounded by an innate obsession with materiality. The first Sodeisha ‘mud-walkers’ found clarity in the French term objet d’art to express beauty over function and distinguish their work from tableware. They founded the framework of obuje, reflecting the Japanese pronunciation, as a new approach to ceramics. Across generations, mouths of vessels closed and later reopened, resuscitating the connection to tea ceremony and inserting expression into everyday forms. This exhibition surveys the current wave of semifunctional form on the small scale with sake cups, small obuje and vessels. The eight ceramicists speculate on futures, unearth histories, and form their inner dialogues in, with and of, clay. Email or DM us to view the exhibition catalogue: info@backwoods.gallery Supported by: @kuramelbourne & @konpiramaru & @dainton.beer Featured artworks: Rie Aizawa Sake Cup(Peach, Teal & Sky Blue) Stoneware 2023 7cm x 7cm x 8cm Signed Tomobako Follow: @aiza_aizawa

Now Showing: OBUJE - SEMIFUNCTIONAL FORM Emergent Sodeisha Lineage Japanese Ceramicists Curated by Ion Fukazawa and Alison Groves 26.05.2023 ~ 11.06.2023 Featuring: Rie Aizawa, Junpei Hiraoka, Jun Matsumura, Maki Nagai, Namika Nakai, Tomoya Sakai, Masatomo Toi and Ion Fukazawa The emerging generation of Japanese ceramicists infuses new narratives into a rich history and tradition of working with clay. Trained by Sodeisha lineage ceramicists, the ceramicists in this exhibition inherit the pursuit of technique and material experimentation as a means to express their relationship with clay. Within these boundaries, freedom to flirt with functionality and categorisation grants endless possibilities. This approach to making eludes tidy English labels of art, design or craft to invite a slower consideration of the objects. Within and beyond Western conceptions of art, the work is grounded by an innate obsession with materiality. The first Sodeisha ‘mud-walkers’ found clarity in the French term objet d’art to express beauty over function and distinguish their work from tableware. They founded the framework of obuje, reflecting the Japanese pronunciation, as a new approach to ceramics. Across generations, mouths of vessels closed and later reopened, resuscitating the connection to tea ceremony and inserting expression into everyday forms. This exhibition surveys the current wave of semifunctional form on the small scale with sake cups, small obuje and vessels. The eight ceramicists speculate on futures, unearth histories, and form their inner dialogues in, with and of, clay. Email or DM us to view the exhibition catalogue: info@backwoods.gallery Supported by: @kuramelbourne & @konpiramaru & @dainton.beer Featured artworks: DILEMMA GUINOMI SERIES Masatomo Toi 2023 stoneware Each approx 6 × 9.5 × 7.8 cm Stamped Tomobako Box Follow: @masatomo_toi

Now Showing: OBUJE - SEMIFUNCTIONAL FORM Emergent Sodeisha Lineage Japanese Ceramicists Curated by Ion Fukazawa and Alison Groves 26.05.2023 ~ 11.06.2023 Featuring: Rie Aizawa, Junpei Hiraoka, Jun Matsumura, Maki Nagai, Namika Nakai, Tomoya Sakai, Masatomo Toi and Ion Fukazawa The emerging generation of Japanese ceramicists infuses new narratives into a rich history and tradition of working with clay. Trained by Sodeisha lineage ceramicists, the ceramicists in this exhibition inherit the pursuit of technique and material experimentation as a means to express their relationship with clay. Within these boundaries, freedom to flirt with functionality and categorisation grants endless possibilities. This approach to making eludes tidy English labels of art, design or craft to invite a slower consideration of the objects. Within and beyond Western conceptions of art, the work is grounded by an innate obsession with materiality. The first Sodeisha ‘mud-walkers’ found clarity in the French term objet d’art to express beauty over function and distinguish their work from tableware. They founded the framework of obuje, reflecting the Japanese pronunciation, as a new approach to ceramics. Across generations, mouths of vessels closed and later reopened, resuscitating the connection to tea ceremony and inserting expression into everyday forms. This exhibition surveys the current wave of semifunctional form on the small scale with sake cups, small obuje and vessels. The eight ceramicists speculate on futures, unearth histories, and form their inner dialogues in, with and of, clay. Email or DM us to view the exhibition catalogue: info@backwoods.gallery Supported by: @kuramelbourne & @konpiramaru & @dainton.beer Featured artwork: Tomoya Sakai たパと碗—TAPATO WAN 2023 stoneware 7 × 12 × 10.5 cm Signed Tomobako Wooden Box Follow: @s_tomoya1212

Now showing: TOM CIVIL SIGNS OF LIFE 26.05.2023 ~ 11.06.2023 "These works aim to disrupt and decompose official colonial Australian symbols and narratives. As a non-Indigenous person I feel it is my responsibility to dig into my own personal history and help to break down these colonial signifiers. I feel as an artist who works in public spaces that symbolism and images matter. They matter in how we live together in this country and how we see ourselves and move forward together into the future. I hope these artworks work towards looking at ideas of the flag, a republic, the monarchy, a treaty, borders, and land ownership." - Tom Civil Artwork: Flight Path Acrylic and Aerosol on Linen 90 × 120.5 × 4 cm Follow: @thomascivilian