Shoichi Seino "Recent Works"

 
Don Soker Contemporary Art is pleased to announce “Recent Works” from September 1 – October 13, an exhibition of a series of wall mounted carbon sculptures by Shoichi Seino. The works in the exhibition are of two types. The first are long carbon tubes encased in Plexiglas and the others are small cubes of carbon. These are produced by an unusual technique, using industrial carbon, and kiln fired at temperatures of 2000F-2200°F.
The process of change in a material has long occupied Seino. Each firing results in a lesser weight. He selected the material for the larger works from scrapped material at a carbon company. Each firing resulted in a lesser weight until the size was the same as that of the acrylic box. As the art writer Kenneth Baker has said about Seino’s work, “he has become interested in disappearance”. Some amount of the carbon has been transformed into gas by sublimation.
For Seino, making work of carbon manufactured for industrial use and fired at extremely high temperatures is the ultimate aspect of metamorphosis by fire. These works are simultaneously very primitive as well as futuristic, even otherworldly. None have titles to suggest their meaning. Seino studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts. He lives in Nagoya, Japan. This is his 8th exhibition at Don Soker Contemporary Art. A reception for the artist will be held on Saturday September 1st from 4 -6 pm.