Yuki Kaneko
Exhibition & Residency:
June 1 – 29, 2015

Yuki Kaneko was born in Osaka, Japan. After graduating from Goldsmiths, University of London, with a BA in Fine Art, she moved to New York to earn an MFA at Parsons New School for Design. In 2002, Kaneko returned to Japan, where, in addition to her work in the studio, she has been cultivating an interest in photography. Her photographs have been featured in Joshi Camera magazine, and she has co-authored the second volume of the book Photo Card Design. Her paintings have been exhibited in Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries and A.I.R. Gallery in New York, and Pichikuri Gallery, Hinata Gallery in Osaka and Del Amo Tower in Tokyo.

Whether creating a tension between sweet and uncanny, or happy and sad, Kaneko presents a juxtaposition of images to kindle an emotional conflict. In each piece, the figure is destabilized through an exchange of human and animal body parts. This anthropomorphism blurs the lines of reality, helping to set the stage for a dual existence. It also allows me to access the multiplicity of symbolic meanings and formal peculiarities that attach to depictions of animals. I place great emphasis on the eyes of a subject even at the expense of other physical characteristics. The gaze allows the work to communicate to the viewer an inner unrest, paralleling the disagreement on the surface.