Hong Kong, August 22, 2012: Enter the manifest universe of Japanese artist Atsushi Tawa where allusively functional objects are bejeweled, bedazzled and bewitched by matter that is as natural as it is manmade, as alive as it is dead, and as beautiful as it is ugly.

Concerned with the emptiness of both form and content, and presented as an isolation of the Romantic ideal, Tawa’s stunning sculptures, shown in Hong Kong for the first time, are an oddly poetic response to our imperfect world.

Tawa’s fascination about the concept of individuality as a notion of established societal norm has led him to experiment with a wide variety of mediums and methods, covering drawing, mixed media sculpture, installations, video and painting.

Allusive yet never symbolic, yearning yet never utopian, Tawa’s works draw forth an ever-evolving dialog between the functional and the functionless, art and autonomy, and design and utility. In Bejeweled, Tawa juxtaposes a collection of found mannequins with quartz - itself a dead object with ephemeral and perpetual existence.

“My father once said to me the world began as a rock – he was an analytical and bioinorganic chemist. My mother disagreed, she said it was a flake of sand – she was an elementary school teacher. And what do I think? I think it began as a banana! Why not?” --Atsushi Tawa

Born, lives and works in Kyoto, Tawa graduated from the Bachelors fine arts department of Tokyo Zokei University before earning his masters at the Glasgow School of Art in the UK. His recent exhibitions include “Power of A Painting 2012”, NADiff Gallery, Tokyo; “Hidden World – Hidden Answers”, Kunstlerhaus, Hamberg, Germany and the EWAA Award Exhibition, Le Galerie, London UK; “Illusion / Reality”, Emerson Gallery Berlin.

Opening Reception
7.00 – 9.00pm Thursday, September 13, 2012
About Identity Art Gallery

Art is Long, Life is Short. Identity Art Gallery brings together visionary art identities who respect art as a lifelong, enduring creative endeavour existing outside the realms of fads and fashion. We discover and promote artists from all four corners of the world, whose strong inner visions foster, seduce, confront and bolster our identities across a diverse range of media, in unusual, direct and lasting manners. Beauty and colours are our mutual interest; simplicity and integrity our common language. Forging links and synergies among like-minded artists, collectors, galleries and curators through solo exhibitions and group collaborations, our ultimate vision is to cultivate an environment where creativity and identities may further flourish.