Kensuke Koike: Dear Friend

Dear Friend

January 6 - 29, 2022

Blue Sky is pleased to announce Dear Friend, an exhibition of works by Kensuke Koike.

image © Kensuke Koike

Kensuke Koike is a contemporary visual artist working at the intersection of photography, collage, and sculpture. In Dear Friend, Koike deconstructs vintage photographs or postcards to create new images by cutting, pasting and reassembling by hand. Many of his works visually transform in utilizing the approach of “nothing added, nothing removed,” by rearranging the pieces and parts, into something completely reimagined. Koike’s eye for the surreal reinvents found imagery into surprising and delightful objects. His “renewed” photographs challenge the viewer’s expectations with new associations that reveal humor, curiosity, absurdity, and beauty.

“If I have many ingredients in my refrigerator, I can cook everything I want. But some ingredients may never be used. If I find only a carrot inside, I must cook it in the best way possible by chopping, grating, roasting, boiling, frying, drying, etc. With many ingredients I would probably never discover that the carrot itself can be such a delicious ingredient.”
- Kensuke Koike

image © Kensuke Koike

Kensuke Koike (Japanese, b. 1980) was born in Nagoya, Japan and is currently based in Venice, Italy. Koike has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Postmasters Gallery, NYC, USA; The Photographer’s Gallery, London, UK; IMA Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, among others. Koike studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice, Italy (1999-2004) and IUAV University, Faculty of Arts and Design, Venice, Italy (2004-2007).