Author Archives: Whitespace

Yukari Umekawa’s Opening

Thank you all for coming to Yukari’s opening of itodenwa (2 cans + 1 string)! It was a beautiful crowd of locals, friends, and family. Congratulations to Yukari on her BFA show, and we are excited to show the work at Whitespec. Come check it out before the exhibition closes on July 11th!




Artist Yukari Umekawa and family


Yukari Umekawa’s Opening

Thank you all for coming to Yukari’s opening of itodenwa (2 cans + 1 string)! It was a beautiful crowd of locals, friends, and family. Congratulations to Yukari on her BFA show, and we are excited to show the work at Whitespec. Come check it out before the exhibition closes on July 11th!




Artist Yukari Umekawa and family


Jerry Cullum on Scott Silvey’s Civic Remedies

Scott Silvey at Whitespace

“Scott Silvey’s ambitious sculptural installations will be remembered by those who attended various alternative-space shows prior to his decamping for parts ever further afield.

His new and quite different paintings of flowers and architecture, transported to Atlanta at immense expense from his current home base of Tokyo, reflect his sensitive effort to transmit the spiritual currents of a culture via visual metaphors. But first and foremost, they are uncommonly fine paintings…”

To continue reading, click me

Scott Silvey’s Opening

Thank you all for joining us at Whitespace last Friday evening! It was such a treat to have Scott and his family present throughout the night, especially for those who have known him during his Atlanta era. As usual, it was very interesting seeing the various viewer reaction and the immediate artist response. Although Scott and his wife Mio are back in Tokyo, the show Civic Remedies is up at Whitespace until July 3rd so come check it out!

Scott and his lovely wife, Mio!









itodenwa (2 cans + 1 string)

itodenwa (2 cans + 1 string)
Yukari Umekawa

SCAD BFA photography show

May 29 – July 11, 2009
Opening Friday May 29, 7-10 PM


Photographer, Yukari Umekawa’s art emerges from her efforts to find peace in a state of longing and isolation. Born in Osaka, Yukari left her friends and family in Japan to pursue her BFA in photography at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. She juxtaposes images of telephone wires and the sky to express a nostalgic homesickness. The telephone wires represent her perpetual desire for contact with home, while images of the sky serve as a comforting reminder that she and her distant home are under the same sky. The exhibition is aptly titled itodenwa, which is the Japanese word for a telephone created from two cans and a string. By deconstructing her digital camera, she created a pinhole camera to capture her images. Through the use of long exposures, her constructed pinhole camera returns dreamlike images that are softened and out of focus. Yukari states, “The photographs then become unclear like my memories.” The show marks her debut, and will be displayed at whitespec alongside Scott Silvey’s exhibition “Civic Remedies”. In contrast to Yukari, the American-born sculptor and painter now resides in Tokyo and is presenting his newest paintings from Japan. Together, the exhibitions will be a unique opportunity to explore the influences of Japanese and American culture on artists living outside their respective homelands.

Civic Remedies
new paintings from Tokyo by Scott Silvey


OPENING RECEPTION

FRIDAY, MAY 22 | 7-10 PM

EXHIBITION DATES

MAY 22- JULY 3

Visual artist, Scott Silvey received his MFA from Georgia State University and was an important player in the art scene in Atlanta until his departure in 2001. After extensive travel throughout Asia, Silvey eventually landed in Tokyo where he currently lives with his wife, Mio. There he continues to teach English and make art.

Scott’s exposure to Asian cultures has significantly influenced this new body of work, Civic Remedies. The richly textured paintings imagine Tokyo as a city devoid of its former human inhabitants. Inside a decaying landscape, vending machines, meters, and electrical lines stand like sentinels among the dwellings where people once lived. Because of unabated consumption, the skeletal remains of human production are all that linger in the faint, enfolding light. Within this spectral scene, soil and medicinal herbs gather in abundance. Their restorative potential has returned to heal an ailing urban landscape. This exhibition presents a continuation of themes that Silvey has explored throughout his career via paintings and installations, the relationship between human construction and natural systems.

Scott Silvey’s work has been exhibited in both group and solo shows in the United States and Asia. His artwork has been reviewed in Sculpture, Art Papers and Antennae.