On view April 13 – May 18, 2023
Open Monday through Saturday from 10am to 4:30 pm
Opening reception: Thursday, April 20, 5-7 PM
Closing reception: Thursday, May 18, 5-7 PM
The City College of New York
160 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031
Morris R. Cohen Library
North Academic Center, Room 5/301
NEW YORK--Counterpoint, a duo exhibition of works by Japanese artist Natsuki Takauji and Korean artist Haksul Lee, will be on view at The City College of New York Cohen Library Archives Gallery from April 13 to May 18, 2023. The exhibition features over 30 works by the artists, created over the past 10 years.
The exhibition, Counterpoint, presents the complexity of the creative journey of Natsuki Takauji and Haksul Lee who have worked very closely as colleagues over many years. This exhibition seeks to throw off the traditional approaches, and instead use the disorderly juxtapositioning of different bodies of works to express the highly individual complexity of creative thinking. Using many media and methodologies, including mixed-media, welding, and metal fabrication, Natsuki Takauji and Haksul Lee approach artistic subjects in radically different ways, and yet when we look through the essence of their artworks, we can glimpse how they interact, interfere and communicate with each other. This radical presentation of their artworks invites the viewer into the complex workings of the artistic mind.
Curated by Francine Rogers
About the artists
Natsuki Takauji was born in Tokyo, Japan, and moved to NYC in 2008. She is an interdisciplinary visual artist practicing sculpture, painting, printmaking, installation, literature, and digital art. She received BA in Creative Writing from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, and studied Visual Art at The Art Students League of New York where she currently teaches Metal Sculpture and leads a public sculpture program, Works in Public in partnership with the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation. She has exhibited a series of public art including interactive sculptures “Window”, “Window II”, and “Confession”. She creates art as the ultimate way of communication to bridge between subjects, objects, and people.
Her recent “Shin Project” explores the idea of our beliefs and how it involves in our lives, which she had concerned growing up in a spiritually confused environment. Since she likes to experiment and observe how different materials react to each other, her works often have metal structures combined with soft materials such as fabric, paper, wax, oil, and clay.
Her collaborative socially engaging work “What Is Your Name?” was made during the ArtPort Residency at LaGuardia Airport, NY, and became a permanent collection of Port Authority of NY&NJ in 2020. She received grants from Queens Council on the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, New York City Council, New York Foundation for the Arts, and The Art Students League of New York.
After she experienced the significance of public art, she co-founded a non-profit arts organization, The Artist Gardener NYC to activate green spaces in the local communities through arts and educational programs; she recently curated an exhibition “Echoes in Harlem” at West 132nd St. Community Garden, Manhattan, NY, and recently exhibited her installation "Tree, Temple, and My Scarf" at Two Coves Community Garden, Astoria, NY.
She has also curated exhibitions for Sculptors Alliance, Inc. with the grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Instagram @theartistgardenernyc
http://www.natsukitakauji.com/about.html
Haksul Lee (b.) 1974, Seoul, South Korea, attend Kwandong University, Gangneung, South Korea for his Bachelor of Fine Arts (1999), Queens College, Queens NY for his Bachelor of Arts (2008), his certification of Sculpture (2010) and certification of Painting (2015) at the Art Student League of New York, NYC, NY. Lee has exhibited his works in the United States and abroad. His most recent exhibitions and Public installations includes “the Giving Tree”, Flushing Meadow Corona Park, NY (2022), the Art Student League of New York’s annual Instructor exhibitions, Phyllis Harrison Gallery, NY (2008-2021), Korean Embassy in China (2013), Proceeding Being at Riverside Park South, NY (2012), and Affordable Art Fair, NY (2009). Lee has been the recipient of the Alliance for Flushing Meadow Corona Park Grant, NY (2021), The CA ArtPort Residency, Queens Council on the Art, LaGuardia Airport Queens, NY (2020), and M2M Public Sculpture Project, Riverside Park South, New York City, NY (2012). Lee is an Instructor for Metal Sculpture Department at the Art Student League of New York, NY (Present-2008), A freelancing Art Installation Consultant, Union City, NJ (Present-2013), and Art Fabrication director for M2M Public sculpture Project for Riverside Park South, NY (2019-2011). Haksul Lee’s studio is located in Union City, NJ.
https://www.haksullee.com/
Media contact:
Francine Rogers
Francinernyc@gmail.com
About Cohen Library Archives Gallery
The City College of New York Archives and Special Collections Division located on the 5th Floor of the Cohen Library to explore the records, artifacts, and achievements of our great New York institution.
City College students, faculty, staff, and alumni are encouraged to view and make use of the collection for scholarship and research. The space can be reserved by faculty and staff to conduct classes, present lectures, and host events. In addition, The Cohen Library Archives Gallery (open to the public) presents several annual exhibitions that feature artists from New York City and around the world as well as artists from the City College community.
