Curated by│Edward, I-Chien CHIU (Tokyo University of the Arts, phD)
To welcome the New Year of 2024, 1839 Contemporary Gallery is going to launch the photography series “I Won’t Let You Go” by the well-known Japanese contemporary female artist Mika KAN in January.
Mika Kan is a contemporary artist whose works question the boundaries between humans and non-humans, as well as the ambiguity between fiction and reality. She uses the technique of “Doll Photography” to capture exquisitely life-like dolls.
Her series of self-portraits titled “I Won’t Let You Go (あなたを離さない)” (2019-present) features lifelike doll photographs created from casts of the artist’s own head. She sets up the life-size silicone dolls and photographs them, portraying clones (asexual reproduction) as artificial twins.
This series is inspired by the background of the novel “Never Let Me Go (私を離さないで)” (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro, a Japanese-British novelist. The novel tells the tragic story of cloned individuals created for organ donation who come to terms with their fate and eventually pass away. While the novel explores the desire of a clone to not be separated in the story “Never Let Me Go,”
Mika Kan’s theme in “I Won’t Let You Go (あなたを離さない)” expresses their relationship as twin sisters.
About Artist Mika KAN
Born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1988.
2021 Completed doctoral course, Department of Intermediate Arts, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 “I won’t let you go” 1839 Contemporary Gallery, Taipei
2023 “Sisterhood,” Gallery10[TOH],Tokyo
2022 “OPEN SITE 7｜Kan Mika [Through the Selfie],” Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo
2021 “shiseido art egg 15, Mika Kan Exhibition, Imaginary Lie,” Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo
2021 “BankART U35 Solo Exhibition Mika Kan,” BankART KAIKO, Yokohama
2019 “The Ghost in the Doll,” The Maruki Gallery for the Hiroshima Panels, Saitama
2018 “The Silent Woman,” Mori Ogai Memorial Museum, Bunko-ku, Tokyo
2016 “The Future Mother,” Hiyoshi Campus, Keio University, Kanagawa
ART FAIRS
2023 “TAIWAN PHOTO 2023 ART FAIR,” 1839 Contemporary Gallery, Syntrend Creative Park, Taipei City
2013 “EMARGING DIRECTORS’ ART FAIR 006,Oct.side,” from Gallery Jin Project, Spiral Garden,Tokyo
AWARDS
2023 Foundation Prize, Japan Toy Culture Foundation
2020 Ikuo Hirayama culture and the art award
2020 Nomura Art Prize, Nomura Foundation
2020 VOCA Encouragement Prize, VOCA2020
2016 Japan Arts Scholarship, Japan Arts Foundation
2014 Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation, Stipend, Japan
COLLECTION
The University Art Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts
Pigozzi Collection
Miki KAN 「I Won’t Let You Go」 solo Exhibition
Date｜2024.01.05-2024.02.04 11:00-19:00
Opening & Artist Talks｜2024.01.06 (六) 14:30-16:30
Curated by｜Edward, I-Chien CHIU, phD
Venue｜1839 Contemporary Gallery
TEL│02-2778 8458