We would like to introduce Toho Yuhei's solo exhibition "Become a Tokyo Monkey!"

Yuhei Toho has stayed in Southeast Asia and other places, and has created works that reexamine everyday scenes in Japan through things that are rooted in local culture, such as bananas and coffee. These works, with their catchy motifs and humor, seem familiar at first glance, but by recreating the uneven relationship between Japan and Southeast Asia (even if it is a one-sided view), they involve the viewer as a party to the work. This exhibition will mainly consist of works with the motif of the endangered "Tonkin snub-nosed monkey" of northern Vietnam, and the work will be made public before the exhibition period. By intentionally misreading and reconstructing the word "Tonkin", which has been influenced by Chinese and French cultures, as "Tokyo", we will reinterpret the cultures and meanings that have been mixed throughout history.

Just as "Tonkin" points east like "Tokyo," "Hokkaido" also points north. From where is Tokyo east, and from where is Hokkaido north? There continues to be a relationship between center and periphery. Yuhei Toho has been moving from place to place, confronting serious themes from multiple angles through his humorous works. This exhibition, held in the artist's hometown of Sapporo, Hokkaido, will be an opportunity to reexamine his background (which may be the center for him) and look at the region and culture from a different perspective.

<Related Events>

Artist Talk
June 29th (Sun) 19:00 – 21:00
Admission fee: 500 yen (includes original sticker)
Guest: Ayako Hiizumi (Curator, Sapporo Art Museum)

Film Screening
Monday, July 7th 19:00 – 21:00
Admission fee: 500 yen (includes original sticker)
With commentary by the artist