Finishing 1 September at 18:30
The “Utopia” by Kazumi Yoshida ends on September 1 at the Loggiato San Bartolomeo.
The artist donates a work to the Sant’Elia Foundation before flying to Rome and Milan for the new installations curated by Paola Nicita and MLC Comunicazione.
To underline Kazumi Yoshida ‘s bond with the city, the work “Plein Soleil” will remain to illuminate Palermo, becoming part of the Sant’Elia collection by permission of the artist. The exhibition of the artist and designer of Japanese origins, art director of Clarence House New York for years who has chosen Palermo for his first retrospective in Europe , ends on 1 September with a precious donation.
Some of the artist’s works exhibited at the Loggiato San Bartolomeo in “Utopia”, the exhibition curated by Paola Nicita – organization MLC Comunicazione – for the Sant’Elia Foundation, will move from the Loggiato San Bartolomeo in Palermo to Rome and Milan from mid-September two new exhibitions again curated by Paola Nicita and MLC Comunicazione. The master’s works were requested by the Borghini Contemporary Art gallery in Rome, on display from 14 September as part of a design itinerary on the theme of light, and by Andrea Ingenito Contemporary Art in Milan, on display from 28 September. In Rome and Milan, in conjunction with the exhibitions, new “Kazumi’s Toy Theater” showcases will also be created at the Hermès Boutiques in via Condotti and via Montenapoleone.
Kazumi Yoshida at the Loggiato San Bartolomeo
The Japanese artist chooses Palermo
The opening of Utopia on June 3rd
Press preview 3 June, 11 am at the Loggiato San Bartolomeo
PRIOR ACCREDITATION to the email stampa.studiogs@gmail.com
PALERMO – It is the place of the imagination par excellence, the one that contains all the desires for harmony and beauty: Utopia by the artist Kazumi Yoshida , one of the best known contemporary designers in the world, takes shape in Palermo as the master’s first major anthology in Italy . Curated by Paola Nicita , the solo exhibition opens on Friday 3 June at 6 pm in the Loggiato San Bartolomeo , one of the exhibition spaces of the Sant’Elia Foundation, organized by MLC Comunicazione di Maria Letizia Cassata; and with the technical partnership of the Antonio Ratti Foundation, Hermès, Villa Igiea Palermo – Rocco Forte Hotel, Palermo Academy of Fine Arts.
Art director of Clarence House in New York, an international reference point for design, Kazumi Yoshida chose Palermo because he was fascinated by its art, nature and architecture: many of the works on display are unpublished, and some of the tapestries and paintings were specially made in homage to the city of Palermo. A personal reflection for a renaissance of art and humanity. In particular, the large painting that gives the exhibition its title was created by Kazumi Yoshida in New York and completed in Palermo, in collaboration with the students of the Academy of Fine Arts , for a joint work which is a heartfelt tribute to vitality and dream that the artist has perceived while visiting the city.
ORGANIC KAZUMI YOSHIDA
Designer, painter and sculptor, artistic director of the award-winning Clarence House in New York, Kazumi Yoshida was born in the town of Tatsuno, Japan, into a family of doctors. His father had foreseen that he too would become a doctor, but he began to paint as a child. Growing up he approaches the fashion photography of artists such as Irving Penn and Guy Bourdin. After finishing college, he studied at the Royal College of Art in London before settling in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood.
Kazumi’s first project for Clarence House is “Papiers Japonais”, a drawing with botanical themes. This design conquers Robin Roberts and the fabric will then be printed by the Antonio Ratti Foundation in Como. In 1982 the American Society of Interior Designers awarded the “Papiers Japonais” as “Best in Printed Design Category” and today it is part of the permanent collection of the Mulhouse Textile Museum, in France.
Kazumi Yoshida creates works of art and then translates them into fabric and wallpaper, or vice versa: among his latest works an all-white wooden sculpture, created for the Cheryl Hazan Gallery in New York, and a porcelain lily of the valley flower for a charity event organized by the owner of Le Cabinet de Porcelain with the artist Samuel Mazy.
The influence of Jean Cocteau, Raoul Dufy, Fernand Léger, Marie Laurencin, Picasso and Matisse can be perceived in his works. Her inspiration comes from art but also from nature and fashion.
Recent exhibitions include solo shows at Cheryl Hazan in New York (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), at Hazan Contemporary (2021, 2022) and at Silo 6776 Gallery in New Hope (2021, 2022) and participations in Art Miami (2018) and Art Basel (2021).
