Mizuma Mizuma Gallery is pleased to announce Radiance, a two-person exhibition by Indonesian artist Albert Yonathan Setyawan and Japanese artist Miyanaga Aiko. This exhibition will present new artworks done in response to each other, alongside each artist’s of their newest body of works. During the opening reception, an Artist Talk session will be held featuring the two artists in conversation about their background as sculptors and how their choice of materials influences their practice, as well as their thoughts on the transient nature of their works.

Craft is not just about the concrete physical results of the final product, but it is also about the process, the ephemerality of the mediums that we use in the process.

(Albert Yonathan Setyawan)

Shown for the first time after its debut in Japan at the major exhibition of Southeast Asian art “SUNSHOWER: Contemporary Art from Southeast Asia 1980s to Now” at the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, is the 10 x 4.5 meter wall installation of Helios (2017) by Albert Yonathan Setyawan. Taking its title from the Sun god of Greek mythology, Helios is the artist's largest-scale artwork to date. Comprising of over 2,000 ceramic pieces in the shape of a flower and a seraph, these symbolic objects are arranged in modules of patterned configuration and fill an entire wall of the gallery space.

Helios is an exemplary work of Albert's practice, who for years spent consumed in a material so closely connected with the idea of nature. Clay, a fundamental ingredient behind ceramic, centers the artists' practice. Solid but brittle when fired and malleable but soluble when left unfired – these transitory moments of the material hold their value precisely because of their transience and impermanence. Whether it is mould-casted or handbuilt, the surface of each clay piece reveals a delicate intricacy and attention into its craftsmanship: a freeing process driven by mediation and repetition where he experiences an extension beyond his own subjectivity at the present moment.

All things change, and the world remains the world.

(Miyanaga Aiko)

Known for her installation using materials such as salt, and especially objects made with naphthalene into the shape of daily commodities, Miyanaga Aiko visualizes time by tracing signs of its presence. In recent years, Miyanaga’s prolific activities both within Japan and overseas have confirmed her position as one of Japan’s most promising artists, and her practice invites us to expect even greater achievements of the next generation of Japanese contemporary art on the international stage.

This exhibition features Life, her most recent series of several suspended transparent paintings, each contains within it countless air bubbles. According to the artist, each individual bubble was sealed into the work little by little, reflecting within it the landscapes of each passing day. It is as if each transparent canvas quietly holds within it, like trace fossils, the presence of various days of our own spent time – the air that we have breathed.

Albert Yonathan Setyawan (b. 1983, Indonesia) graduated from Bandung Institute of Technology with a Masters in Ceramic in 2012. Following that, he moved to Kyoto, Japan, to continue his study in contemporary ceramic art at Kyoto Seika University where he is now pursuing his PhD in Ceramics. He has participated in several important group exhibitions in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Italy and Japan. He was also one of the representing artists in the Indonesian Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. His recent exhibitions include TERRENE at POLA Museum Annex, Tokyo, Japan (2017); and Echigo@Tsumari Art Triennale 2018 at Tokamachi, Niigata, Japan (2018). Albert has undertaken research residencies at Canberra's Strathnairn Arts Association in Australia, and also has his works in the collection of Singapore Art Museum in Singapore; Museum of Modern Ceramic Art in Gifu, Japan; and OHD Museum in Magelang, Indonesia. Albert Yonathan Setyawan lives and works in Kyoto, Japan.

Miyanaga Aiko (b. 1974, Kyoto, Japan) graduated with MA in Intermedia Art from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 2008, and BA from Kyoto University of Art and Design (Sculpture Course) in 1999. Her recent exhibitions include life at Mizuma Art Gallery, Tokyo (2018), between waxing and waning at Yurinso, Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture (2017), Strata: Origins at White Rainbow, London (2014), and Strata: slumbering on the shore at Liverpool Central Library, Liverpool (2014). Miyanaga Aiko was the recipient of the The 28th Takashimaya Art Award, Japan (2018), The Best Young Artist Award by City of Kyoto, Japan (2014), Grand Prize, Nissan Art Award (2013), and the Award Prize, Shiseido Art Egg 3 (2009). Her works are under the collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, Japan; Takahashi Collection, Tokyo, Japan; and Christian Dior K.K, Tokyo, Japan. Miyanaga Aiko lives and works in Yokohama, Japan.