AI KOWADA GALLERY is pleased to present the exhibition Taro Shinoda: The Idea Factory of a Big Loser, which aims to illuminate how the installation artist Taro Shinoda conceived the ideas for some of his large-scale projects.

Shinoda achieved a high career as an artist around the world by his large-scale environmental sculptures which invariably raised concerns about interactions between man and nature through considerations of nature and the manmade environment. Abstraction of Confusion, his newest work made of clay is currently on view at the 20th Biennale of Sydney.

Despite being on a major road of success as an international artist of a high acclaim, Shinoda somehow loves to call himself as "a total loser in all aspects of private life."

To understand the reason for his low self-esteem and the secret of his high productivity, the show turned its attention to a group of drawings he had been making as concept drawings for his projects since the 2000's. By presenting the evolutionary process from the drawings to the final three dimensional works, the show attempts to disclose how Shinoda's ideas have been conceived and how then they have been given physical forms with a transcendental quality.

The drawings almost always feature a naked man with a weak frame, who is perpetually engaged in a small task such as pointing at something or operating a device in a lethargic manner amidst a peaceful natural setting beside an art work. The figure may well be a self-portrait of the artist who claims himself to be a loser. The loser who understands his incompetence as a frail civilized man but loyal to his simple role as an artist, which basically is about carrying out observations about the world and making statements to society through artistic productions.

On the other hand, his final works that derived from these loser drawings are based on: elaborate design; the rigorous selections of materials; and meticulous handwork of a precision close to be on par with that of a master craftsman. The 3D works are the embodiment of the ideas in the original loser drawings, which have successfully achieved a high aesthetic intensity that make the viewers sense the realm of the metaphysical which lies beyond the mundane world.

This high leap from the realm of lethargic slackness to that of the metaphysical may only be achieved by a person who has the readiness to accept one's own incompetence and can embrace the world and universe as they are. Perhaps that is the key to understanding the enormous artistic capability and fecundity possessed by Shinoda, who calls himself a total loser.

The show will include works from such projects as: "Lunar Reflection Transmission Technique Performance at Mleiha desert 2016" (Sharjah 2016), a collaboration of a video work that recorded the observations of the moon with a handmade telescope from different regions on earth and a drum performance; "Karesansui", the dry landscape garden realized in the Arabian Peninsula (Sharjah Biennial 2015); "GINGA" and "Model of Oblivion" (Sensing Nature, Mori Art Museum, 2010.); and "Engawa Site Project (ESP)", an installation and performance project which included a travel around the suburb of Los Angeles on a trailer style engawa (the skirting veranda in traditional Japanese house) made of aluminium (REDCAT, Los Angeles 2004).

Cooperation: Taka Ishii Gallery

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Taro SHINODA

Born in Tokyo in 1964, Shinoda started his career as an artist after studying landscape gardening. He has created sculptures and installation work with the intention of "understanding (universe and all things in nature) as an evolving nature where human activities coexist" and has achieved high acclaims from the critics.
His major solo shows include: Homo sapiens sapiens,Taka Ishii Gallery(Tokyo 2012);Lunar Reflections, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston 2009); Buried Treasure: Taro Shinoda, REDCAT (Los Angeles 2005); God Hand, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.

Other important exhibitions are: The Idea Factory of a Big Loser, AI KOWADA GALLERY(Tokyo 2016); the 20th Biennale of Sydney (2016); SCULPTURE GARDEN (COLLABORATIVE PROJECT) / KAZ OSHIRO / TARO SHINODA, Las Cienegas Projects (Los Angeles, 2011); Sensing Nature, Mori Art Museum (Tokyo 2010); Istanbul Biennial (2007), Busan Biennale (2006) Yokohama Triennale (2001).

​Public collections: Mori Art Museum (Tokyo),Fondation Louis Vuitton (Paris).