COFFEE

YUI KUGIMIYA

DAVID SCHOERNER

NAHOKO PRESS

JULY 18 - AUGUST 15, 2019
OPENING JULY 18, 6 - 8 PM

SITUATIONS is pleased to present COFFEE: Yui Kugimiya, David Schoerner, and NAHOKO PRESS, organized with Yui Kugimiya. The exhibition opens Thursday, July 18th, 6-8 pm and runs through August 15th, 2019. Summer hours are Wednesday - Saturday, 12-6 pm. 

The exhibition takes its name from the beloved brewed beverage, with each artist using coffee as a common subject matter. NAHOKO PRESS, a small independent Tokyo imprint, published a book titled “A Daibo Coffee Manual,” written by Katsuji Daibo in 2015. Inspired by Daibo’s 38 years in pursuit of the perfect cup of coffee at his now defunct coffee house, the manual itself is as carefully crafted, typeset and letterpressed as Daibo’s hand-selected, hand-roasted beans. The softcover tome rests in a wooden frame hanging in the gallery near Kugimiya’s drawings and Schoerner’s photography. Unused, excess pages with snippets of Daibo’s text are available for free with the instructions, “Paper for writing a letter to your one and only, the most important person in the world. Take one. It is for you to write.”

More than subject matter, process lies at the heart of all of the work, and in the case of Kugimiya, coffee also becomes the medium. She presents three charcoal drawings of Bakeneko, mythical cat-like creatures from Japanese folklore. Reminiscent of popular art forms such as Ukiyo-e, cats cradle steaming mugs of java, and emerge from layers of thin espresso washes. Kugimiya mines various aesthetics and assembles them in her own archeological manner. A record of time and place connects divergent locations and ideas.

Similar to Kugimiya’s work once you scratch the surface, Schoerner’s photographs are simultaneously playful and logical. Balancing drip carafes, wine bottles and cups, everyday objects are animated in precarious still lifes. Eighteen temporary, sculptural structures are captured in 6 x 4-inch exposures, flaunting a perilous order (ie: A,B,C; C,A,B; B,C,A; A,C,B; B,A,C; C,B,A). Coffee stains the wooden table in increasingly frenetic patterns as the photos make their way through the series. 

Schoerner, Kugimiya, and NAHOKO PRESS are brought together to highlight the transformative properties inherent in everyday ritual. Time passes, yet here, simple pleasures are exalted. 

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YUI KUGIMIYA (born in 1981, Tokyo) is a painter currently living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA from Yale University School of Art painting/printmaking. Her BFA is from Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA and she attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Kugimiya has held solo exhibitions at the Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse,NY), Galeria Enrique Guerrero (Mexico City), Taymour Grahne Gallery, (New York City), Marlborough Broome Street (New York City), PAGE (New York City), Kunsthall Stavanger (Stavanger, Norway), Taka Ishii Gallery (Kyoto, Japan), Horton Gallery (New York City), and Carroll and Sons (Boston, MA), amongst others. Group exhibitions include Galerie Sebastien Bertrand (Geneva, Switzerland), Bluecoat (Liverpool, UK), ATM Gallery (New York, NY), Suzanne Tarasieve (Paris, France), Regina Rex (Brooklyn, NY), Journal Gallery (Brooklyn, NY), NoMiNIMO (Guayaquil, Ecuador), Gasser & Grunert (New York City), and Creative Time curated her work in the StandART Video Program at The Standard Hotel, shown in multiple locations. Her work is held in various collections including the Museum of Modern Art (New York City), Everson Museum of Art (Syracuse, NY), The Bass Museum of Art (Miami, FL), and the New York Prespertyrian Hospital (New York City). 

DAVID SCHOERNER (born 1984, Reno, Nevada) is an artist and book publisher based in New York City. He founded Hassla Books in 2007 with a focus on artists' books and catalogues. Recent art exhibitions include Emmanuel Barbault (New York, NY); fourseasons new york (Brooklyn, NY); Gagosian Gallery (New York City, Beverly Hills, CA, and Paris, FR); Kerry Schuss (New York City); Essex Flowers, (New York City); Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX); Cindy Rucker Gallery (New York City); Higher Pictures (New York City); Kopeikin Gallery (Los Angeles, CA); MELK (Oslo, Norway); BAM (Brooklyn, NY); amongst others. Schoerner holds a BFA from Montserrat College of Art. 

NAHOKO PRESS (established 2014, Tokyo, Japan) is a small independent publisher based in Tokyo. The word "press" in the name refers to the zen term "shin-in", which means to press a stamp on one's heart. The press has participated in the NY Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1. The books can be found in the U.S. at Mast Books (New York City); McNally Jackson Books (New York City); Book/Shop (Oakland, CA); City Lights Bookstore (San Francisco, CA); and in Japan at Daikanyama Tsutaya Books, Higashiaoyama, and Saruyama in Tokyo and Books & Things and Kamisoe in Kyoto. For the duration of the exhibition, “A Daibo Coffee Manual” is available for purchase at SITUATIONS.