"China/Biblioteca/Manga : Shimao Shinzo, Ushioda Tokuko, Maho Shimao"
2008-08-14 until 2008-08-31
LEE Ka-sing Gallery
Tononto, ON, CA Canada

This year, the Toronto summer is not particularly hot. Tropical rain showers in between bright sunny days. The cool and the fresh part is - LEE Ka-sing at INDEXG brings in a slice from the most elegant part of Asia - an exhibition from Tokyo featuring the Shimao family trio, SHIMAO Shinzo, Tokuko USHIODA and Maho SHIMAO. Entitled "China/Biblioteca/Manga", the exhibition is based on the larger scale museum show "Maho-chan's Lovely Home" at Art Tower Mito in Japan in 2004-2005.

A family of books. If you can pick that up from your memory, from Hideo Suzuki's exhibition at LKS (pater noster, 2006), Suzuki's beautiful book with the same name was designed by his very good friend Shimao Shinzo. What's more? Shimao Shinzo's father (Shimao Toshio 1917-86) was a famous novelist in Japan. No doubt Shimao Shinzo is a good writer. His books "Monsoon" and "Life" show a good marriage of his unique writings with photographs.

Tokuko Ushioda's work in the "China/ Biblioteca/ Manga" is a series of portrait of books. Ushioda has been noted for her early series - portrait of ice-box (of Japanese families, 1992). In her own words, "portrait of the ice-box is the portrait of the interior of a person". thereafter, Ushioda worked on the series "Hat" (1994) and "Biblioteca"(2003).

Maho Shimao hit the Japanese cool scene with her first book "Joshikosei Goriko" in 1997. She was hot in Tokyo and has become a celebrity manga artist among the young generations.

Lee Ka-sing met Shinzo and Tokuko in Hong Kong in the earlier nineties, and over the years they become good friends. "I brought Shimao's book (China Life Report, 1984) in a Japanese department store in Hong Kong in the eighties before I met the artists personally four years later" said Lee. Shimao Shinzo and Tokuko Ushioda have been showing extensively in Japan. This is the first North American show for the father-mother-daughter trio.

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