Unexpected Stories by Umi Kumano

Umi Kumano creates his works by pairing seemingly unrelated scenes and motifs as if they were part of a single event in one world. Although these elements may share no meaningful connection, the imagination of the viewers spins them into ‘Unexpected Stories’.

Through their unconventional juxtaposition, mundane and commonplace scenes from the everyday world morph from reality to surreality. Reclassifying the relationships between multiple events and motifs, the viewer can open the door to infinite possibilities.

The artworks in this exhibition were inspired by the artist’s European experience since 2014, exemplified by the buzzing atmosphere of a Berlin café with vintage chairs and tables. Kumano’s sense of density and scale brings the viewers into a delicate atmosphere of joy and pale gloom, where the unpredictability of the artist’s narrative will surprise them.

Umi Kumano (b. Fukui, 1983) graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2007. He is the recipient of the Shell Art Award (2010), Iemura Tamayo Shinsain Award (2010), Tokyo Wonderwall Award (2010), Wonderseed (shortlisted, 2012) and the 16th Okamoto Taro Contemporary Art Award (2013). Other solo exhibitions include TWS-Emerging 173 HAPPINESS∞REVOLUTION, TWS Hongo, Tokyo (2011) and bifrost-, E&C Gallery, Fukui (2014). His works have also been featured in group shows at the Ueno Royal Museum in Tokyo, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum and at the Studio+Plus in Berlin. He currently lives in Berlin as a guest student at Berlin University of Arts on a Fukui Prefectural scholarship.