Assistants: Jong Yugyong, Masayuki Oku, Lily Shu, Ryusuke Yamai

Ota Fine Arts is delighted to present a group exhibition entitled 'Assistants' by our assistant staff, following the previous exhibition that was held in 2002. How do these four young artists digest the contemporary art they experience in their everyday work flow at the gallery? These artists with vastly diverse backgrounds reflect their generation in artworks. We may perhaps grasp the forthcoming contemporary art scenes through these four emerging artists.

Jong Yugyong (b. 1991) is a third-generation Zainichi Korean (permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan) and graduated from a Korean school in Japan. His paintings are made of pop dots of various sizes, which captures images of North Korean propaganda posters which he finds strange and odd even from his standpoint. His paintings when viewed from a regular distance appear seemingly unusual and abstract, but one is able to see a bigger outline of the painted posters when one moves further away from the work. This shifting distance between the paintings and the viewer expresses the difficult position in which Jong stands.

Masayuki Oku (b. 1992) exhibits an installation work, and his main subject matter is the Tokyo National Stadium as it is a landmark that holds a lot of the artist's family history. In 1964, a company founded by Oku's grandfather was involved in the construction of the National Stadium for the Tokyo Olympics. Over the years after he passed away, Oku's father took over the company and now as a new Tokyo National Stadium is to be built for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics 2020, the company might again be involved in its construction. Oku expresses his thoughts towards the Olympics from his personal position which lies between family history and his own memory.

Lily Shu (b. 1988), born in Halpin, China, photographs her room and mother. The artworks suggest the distance she has towards her family and related memories, which are supposed to be close to her. The distance was inevitably created in the process of the artist living away from her home country for 8 years. Zhou's photographs can be considered as an attempt to capture the existences close to herself as physical objects.

Ryusuke Yamai (b. 1993) uses duplicators such as fax machines, photocopiers and scanners to produce deformed photocopy-looking artworks. He intentionally deviates from the manufactural products' original movements, and stabilises these errors and happenings as an image developed from the medium through the repeating process. His work reflects a strong influence by industrial music.

These young artists are still in experimental phases, but they are now attempting to develop their roots as artists in this uncertain society. Encompassing their quiet aspirations, Ota Fine Arts invites you to this experimental exhibition of these four emerging artists.