PRIVATE VIEW: Wednesday 13th February 2019 18:00 – 20:00(RSVP)

ARTIST TALK: Saturday 23rd February 2019 15:00 – 16:00

The Sway Gallery London is pleased to announce Innervisions, an exhibition by Akiko Ban, a Japanese interdisciplinary artist based in London. This exhibition presents Ban’s latest sculptures and drawings that explore to establish a primal, naturalistic and spiritual vista of the inner world of her creation.

Her artistic practice seeks to give lives to materials, generating individual bodies which she believes have their own existence. These ritual objects and environments were inspired by contemporary culture, music, fashion and her own daily experiences. She presents art work as a means of expressing her personal mythology which embodies the essence of the world she lives in.

By employing fluid materials such as water, ink, plaster and fabric, Ban intends to spark a moment emerging through the interactions between material, time, environment and herself. Each piece is a unique and improvised rapidly and responsively. She calls this process manifestation of entity, it takes place when her unconsciousness is in tune with the integrated materials. Prior to her creation, she carefully studies the materials logically and intuitively until they start to form a part of her entity, which later allows her to work spontaneously. Her background as a trained Japanese calligrapher helps her access the state of unconsciousness yet sensory acute state during which the work brings the generation process.

For her new sculptures, she carefully paints, decorates and presents them along with her lively water colours and glitter drawings in order to activate her ritual environment.