Sho + 1（台東区上野）

a two-person exhibition by Kenji Misawa and Jonathan Seliger “Material and Substance”
Date｜May 16 (Fri) to June 14 (Sat), 2025
Time｜12:00 - 18:00 / Closed on Mon. Sun. Holiday
at Sho+1
Free Admission

Sho+1 is pleased to present a two-person exhibition by Kenji Misawa and Jonathan Seliger “Material and Substance” from May 16 (Fri) to June 14 (Sat), 2025.

Kenji Misawa, as a sculptor, has long engaged with a wide range of materials—iron, wood, marble, and more. In confronting the two-dimensional space of painting, Misawa focused on ways of imbuing painting with materiality by fusing diverse materials. Deeply influenced by the artists of Mono-ha (the “School of Things”, a postwar Japanese art movement that emphasized raw materials and their spatial relationships), his creative process is rich in originality. Whether he extrudes paint directly from the tube onto the canvas in irregular forms, adheres cassette tapes or discarded objects onto painted surfaces, or layers charcoal atop ink-washed supports, he approaches the painting, anchoring his practice in an awareness of mass and volume to pursue a material-centric approach to painting upon his experience in three-dimensional expression as a sculptor even within the constraints of a flat surface.
Jonathan Seliger, by contrast, reconstructs the remnants of consumer culture—luxury brand shopping bags, takeout containers from Chinese restaurants, paper cups, disposable masks, light bulbs, and milk cartons—by bending and painting materials such as canvas, bronze, and brass.
By reviving what has already been consumed, Seliger excavates the latent presence within these remnants and sublimates them within the context of Pop Art.
What is most compelling, however, is that he creates entirely new materials with a new “quality”, using a wide spectrum of materials - enamel, oil paint, alkyd, acrylic, modeling paste, and even medical-grade substances like Coloplast.
Both artists share a profound gaze toward the very essence of materials and a drive to explore new potentials of materiality. Their work goes beyond mere material reuse or the physical reconstruction of matter, embodying essential questions in contemporary art by navigating the oppositions between "material" and "expression", "reality" and “symbol”, and "consumption" and "regeneration". These inquiries are precisely what imbue their works with a sense of contemporaneity and timelessness simultaneously.
We sincerely invite you to appreciate the exhibition, and we look forward to welcoming you all.