PRESS RELEASE

2010.1.25 - 1.30
TRANSNATIONAL ART 2010

We are happy to announce the upcoming contemporary art group exhibition organized by SoHo Art Gallery of Osaka to take place at the Osaka Contemporary Art Centre's Exhibition Room A, from January 25th to January 30th, 2010.

This special exhibition features new graphic, painting, sculpture, installation, multimedia and performance art works by 38 emerging and established artists from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand and The U.S., who're often living and working between their home countries and Osaka.

The goal of this exhibition is to present the public with a comprehensive collection of unique new works addressing issues in contemporary art by artists working or living in a transnational context.

Featured artists:
anata, Seishi ISHIDA, Youichi ITAKURA, Hirotaka ICHIKAWA, Ryohei OBATA, Takayuki OSHIMA, Hiroyuki OGOSHI, Tiery Le... (France), Yoshinobu KAWATAKE, Akiko KAWABATA, Atsuhiro KANZAKI, Ataru KOZORU, Masatoshi GOTO, Yusuke SAKAO, Yoshihisa SANO, Yuki SHIGEOKA, Masato SUNAMI, zipertatou (Canada), Kanako TAKADA, Sanae TAMURA, Rick TUAZON (U.S.A.), Yukiko TSUSHIMA, Vinh TRUONG (Canada), Krzysztof DEBICKI (Canada), Kunihiko NAKANO, Tomoyuki NAKAMOTO, Kouichi NISHIMURA, Kotaro HACHINOHE, Yuuki HATSUKANO, Charles-Éric BILLARD (Canada), VHS, Jason FERGUSON (Australia), Sarah VAN MARCKE (Belgium), Yoko MARUYAMA, Akiyo MUGURUMA, Marie YAMADA, Kenji YOSHIDA and RANDOM (New Zealand).

Contemporary Art on display: Paintings (Oils, acrylics, mixed media), Drawings (Color pencils, pen and ink), Installation, Prints (silkscreen), Performance (Live Painting), Interactive Video Installations, Video Projections, Sculpture (Stone, glass, resin and ceramics) and 2D and 3D Photography.

Admission: Free
Opening Performance by Kotaro Hatch ( http://www.kotarohatch.com ):
Monday January 25th from 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., in gallery A.

Art Talk:
Saturday January 30th from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. featuring guest speakers Bernard Catryss, Director of the Flanders Center, Masakatsu Nishino, President of Osaka Arts Planning, Celio H. Barreto, Owner/Creative Director SoHo Art Gallery and a selection of participating artists (TBA)

Exhibition dates and times:
Monday Jan. 25th: 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Tuesday January 26th to Friday Jan. 29th: 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
Saturday Jan. 30th: 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.

The Osaka Contemporary Art Center is located in the New Annex North & South, 3-1-43 Otemae, Chuo-ku, Osaka 540-0008, Japan

Directions:
- Tanimachi Subway Line: Get off at Tanimachi 4-chome Station, and take exit No. 1-A.
The centre is a 3 minute walk away.
- Keihan Temmabashi Station: Take the East Exit ad walk 10 minutes southbound.

For more information please call 06-4394-7456 during regular business hours or visit: http://transart2010.blogspot.com

Curated by: SoHo Art Gallery ( Celio Barreto and Yachiyo Nakao )
Supported by: Flanders Center, Osaka Arts Planning, Holbein Art Materials Inc.
Under the auspices of: Osaka Contemporary Art Center and the Kansai Agency for Cultural Affairs 'Power of Culture' iniciative.

TRANSNATIONAL ART 2010: http://transart2010.blogspot.com

Japan Year 7

November 13th marks my anniversary of coming to Japan. Around this time of year I'm always taken back to that time. A lot has changed since then, and then again, not much seems to have changed at all. Buildings have gone up and down, I've moved more times than I care to have, I've changed jobs between radically different industries and I can now say with confidence that I can speak Japanese better than ever.

This past year has been incredibly tough, stressful, chaotic, surprising, full of crises and problems. And yet I would not change a thing. Being under this much pressure has forced me to prioritize, find more efficient ways to do things, spend less, make more, and reassess and transform my business. A lot of things went sour, but there were also a lot of new opportunities that came up. Two years ago NOVA went belly-up, dragging thousands of people into a nightmare I rather not remember. Since then I've focused entirely on SoHo, giving it my all and all every day. I'm exhausted. The good thing is that it keeps going, we've had to tweak, cut back, adjust, trim, and restructure to make through a very bad business climate. We had the chance to rethink what SoHo is and design and build a new gallery space from scratch! My life is SoHo now. It's about all I can think about. Not the building, not the walls, but rather the people who make up this crazy place.

The gallery has become my child, and while it is very hard to run it, I would not do anything else in the world. Today, as I write this entry we're preparing for two rather large group shows with a total of 80 people participating. Nowdays I live for this kind of challenge and I love it. I've also been fortunate enough to have met dozens and dozens of really amazing people, working with them, talking with them and generally looking for a way forward in life and business. I now find myself writing for two great publications and taking part in a whole world of mainstream and underground art events doing business almost exclusively in Japanese.

Japan is like an onion. the more layers you peel, the more layers you find underneath. The more I think I know this place, the more I realise I don't! That is what fascinates me about this place, you never reach the bottom. In the 6 years I've been here I feel that I know less than when I first arrived. Freaky isn't it? The more you learn about the culture and its customs and its history, the more that is expected of you. Thus you're set up for much more learning and unique experiences. I've learned more Japanese over the past 2 years than in the 4 years before opening the gallery. The reason? survival.

The safety net is out, it burned off one fateful october day in 2007. While I am not yet where I want to be in terms of financial independence and business success, Thank God I'm no longer in the dark place I was in before. The road is still long ahead, and there are a shitload of challenges waiting for me, most of them under a crapload of layers I haven't even come across yet. Who knows what the future will bring. Come what may, That is less important than being able to realise that life is not this thing that you can plan out and predict. That in itself is one hell of a thing to know.

Here's to the start of year 7 in the land of sushi!

Only in Japan

Now you can enjoy your greasy burger guilt-free, as Japanese Macdonalds are all equipped with freaking DEFIBRILATORS!!!

Spring Report

Well, the house is almost finished and we're going nuts packing and moving our stuff little by little. Goldie's been stressing out a bit, as the new place is a bit smaller than our current place. I hadn't worried so much as I thought i didn't have a lot of stuff to move. That all changed today when i started packing my crap and realized that i have way to much junk i never ever use but I hold on to for various reasons. So, as we only have mondays to do anything non-gallery related, we went nuts today getting the move ready. Were we able to get it all done? not by a long shot. We move next monday and we're barely 10% done i think. this will be one massive challenge. Needless to say that the schedule at SoHo will remained unchanged while all this moving's taking place. What's more, no one will ever notice the great great deal of stress we're under, that just wouldn't do. Anyhow, after business hours is gloves off and we'll be expressing ourselves rather colorfully for the next few days. we'll post again once the move's finished and put some pics up.

Aights, TTYS!

C.

January Report

Woah! 2008 flew by! and January now seems like a blur. We started the year doing some work on the cottage, which needs TLC by the truckload. We're very happy to be working on it, and can't wait for it to be ready. It will be sometime before we can stay there, as it needs some major repair work and many other things.

Our friends George and Tamara came to visit last week, and we were so happy to have them here. unfortunately we were really busy with an off site exhibition and couldn't spend as much time as we wanted with them. However, it was the first time both of them had come to Japan together, and I'm very happy they could come. In previous visits we had shown them different parts of Osaka to each of them and I think they spent some time showing the city to each other. It had been almost a year and a half since we last saw them. We're going to try to head over to Seoul again and spend some quality time with them before they return to Canada.

As for the shop, things are really busy, or have been really busy. We curated and organized a really cool art show with a friend's gallery from Shanghai. It was an amazing experience and everyone's works were really incredible. We are so proud of each of them and want to do everything we can to make their work shine.

“Soñar con Japón”

Queridos amigos, tengo el placer de comunicarles que "Soñar con Japón" ya ha salido a la venta el dia de hoy. Este lindo libro fotográfico, producido por David Morales de Fotocompra.com, junto a un equipo de bloggers españoles radicados en Japón, comprende imagenes de este bello pais y esta escrito en ambos idiomas; castellano y japonés.

Tuve el gran honor de ser invitado a participar en este proyecto, y es con mucha felicidad que les invito a visitar los siguientes enlaces para ver un poco más de cerca este libro.

“Soñar con Japón”

Editor: David Morales (Manager, Fotocompra.com)


Autores:
Alejandro Cremades
David Esteban
Héctor García)
Javier Serrano

Prólogo: Celio Barreto

Concepto original, diseño y maquetación: Fotocompra.com
N° de páginas: 100
Tamaño: 19x19cm
Primera edición: 7 de Noviembre de 2008

Dad in Japan

Last week my old man came to Osaka to visit for a few days. We had a great time hanging out. It was his first time in Japan so I took him to a few key places in and around Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe. He was very happy indeed. He ate all the stuff I ordered for him and left the country fascinated with Japan. Here are a couple of pics:

PSP 2000

I am thoroughly convinced that the PSP 2000 was designed specially for me :) here's a list of the stuff I usually do with it:

Websurfing. by far the best web surfing gadget. full color and great res. the real portable web!

I watch TV on it. It's smart enough to show subtitles and I can listen to shows in english with the SAP function. Also, i record some of my fave shows with it and transfer them to my older PSP.

GPS. I jimmied up a mount for the PSP on my bike, so I get to plan my rides and use the PSP as a navigation unit.

Radio. I download a crapload of news and other radio show podcasts to keep me updated and entertained just before I go to bed, or on a slow day.

Movies. I sometimes plug it to the tv and watch movies on the big screen or projector at work.

Camera. great backup camera and video camera, been taking some pretty cool shots with the native 16:9 video format.

Games. Hmmm... not really, with all the other stuff this little machine can do, who needs games?

I'm older now

On tuesday yours truly turned one year older! Yey! but the "wisdom" gauge hasn't moved much :) . Goldie threw me a surprise party at SoHo and it was a blast. I was very happy to see everyone, and we had the grill going with some yakiniku brugogi. I want to thank everyone for coming out and for all the wonderful gifts i received. I didnt get a chance to take any pictures.

Tuesday was also Suguru-san's show opening as well as Hatsukano-san's 21st birthday. They had a blast as well. We wrapped the party up by about midnite, with stomachs full and heads spinning :). Thank you very much once again, and thanks be to God almighty for another year of life. To all of you who couldn't be there, I missed you, but there's always next year.
Thanks again!

What a day!

Today was one of the most interesting days we've had at SoHo. Zane and his cast and crew came to film the final scene for his film: "The Olden Days are Now". There was a great turnout of extras for the shoot thanks to Lawrence Hong, who brought in great people for the filming. Zane was thoroughly impressed with the cooperativeness and patience of the extras, who for hours populated each video frame take after take. I want to thank each and everyone of them for their support and effort.

Thank you to everyone involved for an unforgettable experience. We hope to see many of you at the premier, to be held at SoHo in spring 2008.