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AI KIJIMA
Franklin Parrasch Gallery is pleased to announce its second solo show of new work by Brooklyn- based artist Ai Kijima. In 2006 Kijima's first solo show in New York was met with both intrigue and enthusiasm. With her processes in the acquisition of media (found fabric) and intensity of both skill and execution, Kijima has effectively carved out a unique vocabulary for image making.
Over the past two years Ai Kijima has exhibited in public institutions both nationally and internationally, including The Textile Museum of Canada, The Center of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, Dalhousie Art Gallery in Halifax, Arizona State University Art Museum, and most recently at the McColl Art Center in North Carolina.
Also within this time Kijima has relocated to New York (making frequent trips to her native Tokyo) and composed some of her most lyrically expressive and compositionally mature works yet. Her self-proclaimed addiction to fabrics lure Kijima into flea markets and second hand shops, wherever she is, almost daily. Her images, collaged into seemingly chaotic arrangements, reveal the collection of a visual language that shapes her personal interpretations and visions of the world. As Kijima states:
I interweave and manipulate pre-existing materials from the range of subculture zones to transcend the limitations of the existing standards of values.
Kijima's obsessive yet strangely selective acquisition of vintage commercial fabrics, essentially discarded remnants from peoples personal lives, is itself an act of relocation and re- contextualizing. By finding the right place for these printed fabrics she is able to make discarded images come to life again.