B ehind the playful, surreal façade of Atsushi Kaga’s work lurks significantly darker territory, wherein the artist confronts serious issues of cultural politics, mental health – personal insecurities, paranoia (particularly a fear-of-missing-out), companionship and loneliness, and the complex search for identity and the philosophical crises presented by daily routine. Originally from Tokyo, and now living and working between Ireland and Kyoto, Japan, Atsushi Kaga studied Replica Handbags at the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, graduating in 2005, and made a critically acclaimed first solo museum exhibition at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny in 2008. Kaga collaborated with his mother Kazuko Kaga on a process show, Nerd bag, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (2010) and reiterated in a solo ‘Positions’ presentation for Art Basel Miami Beach, (2011). Kaga’s fourth solo exhibition at mother’s tankstation Dublin; Melancholy with vegetables surrounded by miracles (2020), introduced and developed his recent, highly detailed large-format paintings, influenced by both Dutch vanitas and the 17-18th century Kyoto schools, fused to his characteristic style and subject matter – with Usacchi, a trickster rabbit as his alter ego, at its core. Atsushi Kaga has also made notable solo exhibitions with Maho Kubota Gallery, Tokyo, Jack Hanley Gallery, New York, Galeria Leme, São Paolo, Galerie Nicolas Krupp, Basel, and Temple Bar Gallery & Studios, Dublin, among others. He participated in the Location One International Residency Programme, New York (2012); the International Studio and Curatorial Program, New York (2011); and has also held residencies in São Paolo, Fountainhead, Miami and the Artists’ Work Programme at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. Kaga was awarded the 2019 – 2021 Tony O’Malley Residency in Callan, Kilkenny and participated in the Steep Rocks Art Residency, Washington, Connecticut in Autumn 2021. Kaga will present his first London solo exhibition, your memorabilia floats in the air, with mother’s tankstation, London in October 2022.

E stablished in Dublin, 2006, mother’s tankstation foregrounds the development of complex practices presented within critical and polemical frameworks. In addition to the Dublin base, mother’s opened a London space in 2017, which has established itself on the ground floor in the busy gallery district of Bethnal Green. The combined program includes nine+ exhibitions annually, through which a growing number of represented artists, such as Atsushi Kaga, have been introduced to significant international attention. A further presence is constructed through art fairs, at the core of which is Art Basel. mother’s tankstation has hosted CONDO London three t.mes s and participated in selective ‘boutique’ events globally, such as Felix, LA. Curated presentations are approached with correspondent rigor to gallery exhibitions, structured on a mixture of solo exhibitions and curated conversations. The gallery privileges text and dialogue as important negotiators of artistic ideas and is conscious of the website as a research facility and historical archive.

F or his beneficiary, Atsushi Kaga has chosen Kilkenny collects ive for Arts Talent. KCAT (Kilkenny collects ive for Arts Talent) is an inclusive arts center in rural Ireland. It started in 1999 in response to the talents of George McCutcheon, a young man with Down Syndrome who had been passionately creating art using found materials for a couple of years. The center quickly became a place in which artists and students with different backgrounds and abilities can create, as equals and in which lifelong learning is an option for everyone.

Regarding his selection, Kaga writes;

Artist

Atsushi Kaga