Kazuyoshi Usui "Showa92"

Dates: October 31 (Sat) — November 21 (Sat), 2015

Zen Foto Gallery is pleased to host the photography exhibition 'Showa92' by Kazuyoshi Usui from 31 October to 21 November. This series is a sequel to 'Showa88' which was published in 2011. Along with the exhibition, photography book Showa92 is published by Zen Foto Gallery.

Atopic dermatitis is an iconic modern disease. I myself am a man living in this modern era, coping with the allergic reactions of this disease, which occurs when my immune system overreacts to an unknown substance.
Looking out to the Tokyo Olympics to be held in 2020, sanitization is under way throughout this city. I would not simply judge it as good or bad. I rather see this phenomenon as our reality, that the culture which enfolds greyness, where discordance lies, is disappearing, replaced by one that is only tolerant of things that fall into a category — white or black, good or evil. But I believe that this culture of greyness represents the very charm of humanity.
As it has developed, today’s Japan has no room for difference and otherness to coexist, and places for escape are disappearing. I endeavour to record such places of “asylum” in my own way.

ーKazuyoshi Usui

  • Asylum: sanctuary that cannot be breached, or a place of security protected from intervention by any legal force.
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Artist Profile

Kazuyoshi USUI

Born in Tokyo, 1975, Usui graduated from Tokyo Polytechnic University, Department of Photography in 1998 and studied under the pioneering photographer Hosoe Eikoh. He lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. His past solo exhibitions include “Macaroni Christian” (Konica Minolta Plaza Gallery, 1996), “Showa 88” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2011 and Shadai Gallery 2013), “Showa 92” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “Showa 88-95” (KKAG, 2018), and “Showa 96” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2019).

Usui has also participated in numerous group exhibitions including “San Marino International Photomeeting” in 1997, “In & Out” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, “A Vision of Japan” at Galleri Balder, Oslo, “Inside Out: Through Japanese and Israeli Lenses” at TEO Center for Culture, Art and Content, Herzliya, and “Focus” at Schaefer International Gallery, Maui Arts & Culture Center.

His main publications are “Macaroni Christian” (Bijutsu Shuppan, 2006), “Showa 88” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2011), “Showa 92” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2015), “Showa 96” (Zen Foto Gallery, 2019), and “Photography? End?” (Magic Hour Edition, 2022). In 2015 he was responsible for the planning and cinematography of the movie “The 14th Dalai Lama”. Usui’s works are included in public collections such as Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Yamanashi, Tokyo Polytechnic University, and the Amana Collection, Tokyo.

Publications & Prints