Masakazu Horiuti and Motohiro Tomii
“Contorting Forms” combines, in clever and engaging ways, historical works by Masakazu Horiuti—a pioneering figure of abstract sculpture in Japan—with recent works by Motohiro Tomii that feature humble, everyday objects.
Through unexpected configurations and juxtapositions, both artists are adept at expanding awareness of formal structures that permeate our ubiquitous environment. Tomii sportively places Horiuti’s metal Cube (line), 1981, on the floor next to his own torso or fried rice #8, 2023—a concrete brick, upon which four socks are delicately draped; knocked off its (modernist) pedestal, the older, scuffed-up iron piece comes across here as a sort of aged plaything. Tomii’s GG, 2019, consists of just a pair of stacked bookends, positioned high on a wall as an elegant arrangement of gray, metallic arches, while Horiuti’s stainless-steel Outside of a Cube, 1990, performs a deconstructive critique of its own, offering a splayed open box with mirrored, interior surfaces that yield complex perceptual effects as one moves around it.
Resembling a flat-screen monitor, Horiuti’s Plane N-A, 1962, offers a pleasing patina in chocolate hues, along with two, curved rectangular forms—the size of cell phones—which peel away on either side of the metal slab like pieces of paper. Pinned to a nearby wall, Tomii’s trio of collages—NR #12, NR #13, NR #19 (all 2016)—each merely consist of three notebook pages, arranged so their ruled lines align. Fluttering in the breeze, these humble papers offer a contrasting approach to Horiuti—in terms of material and method of making—but with a similar goal: a renewed appreciation of the geometric systems which silently condition our daily lives.
