KOJI TAKEI
Koji Takei works reference synthetic cubism in the most literal of senses. In cubist artworks, the objects are broken up, analyzed and re-assembled in abstracted form. These pieces, sculpted meticulously from objects of our everyday life, allude to the deconstructed instruments that often were referenced by Picasso and Braque in their first phase of explorations into cubism.
As much as Takei’s pieces are Cubist in nature there is also an unmistakable Asian influence in the working method of the Japanese native. A quiet solidarity and respect for the individual parts set the pieces apart from the noisy commentary that Cubism often invokes. Takei’s pieces are minimal in nature, but powerful in presence and seem to reference the interlocking sculptures by fellow Japanese-American, the late Isamu Noguchi.
Koji Takei is a sculptor living and working in Los Angeles, California. He has taught at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA, Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, and is currently a faculty member at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and Academy of Art University in San Francisco. His art has been the subject of recent exhibitions at Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.
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