Review of vortex (published by Akaaka, 2022) in collector daily
…”Kikuji Kawada may indeed have a fair claim at joining this very small club [of ‘notable photographers who got their start in the mid to late 1960s, and who are now still working, many well in their 80s,’ who have ‘successfully launched themselves into the current world of computationally driven, software manipulated digital photography’]…As an experience, looking at Vortex mimics a sprawling stream of consciousness, with echoes and refrains of subject matter and aesthetics appearing and reappearing, knitting the visuals into a well-integrated whole that ultimately stands as a forceful artistic statement.
“Mottled, stained, cracked, bubbled, scratched, reflected, and otherwise distorted surfaces make plenty of appearances, alluding to stories of damage and decay as well as a kind of pervasive disorientation, where we steady ourselves by looking closely at something that refuses to resolve and becomes almost alien. Kawada is also innately in tune with cycles of of nature, most notably the movements of the sun and moon, which take on ominous and apocalyptic overtones here when seen in their darkest zones.”
Click here for full review
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, BOSTON ACQUIRES KIKUJI KAWADA’S CHIZU/THE MAP ARCHIVE
Press release
August 5, 2022
L. Parker Stephenson Photographs (New York) and PGI (Tokyo) are delighted and honored to announce the acquisition by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston of the archive of Japanese photographer Kikuji Kawada’s landmark series Chizu / The Map.This exceptional archive of his renowned early series consists of a set of 87 photographs along with their negatives, binders of the original contact sheets with personal notes, and a rare 1965 first edition of the photobook itself.
Click here to read the Gallery and PGI’s press release.
Click here to read MFA, Boston’s press release.
Click here to read the Boston Globe’s article about the acquisition.
NEW YORK TIMES
BEST ART BOOKS OF 2021
The art critics of The Times select their favorites from this year’s crop of art books. Among these notable works rests Kawada’s Chizu (Maquette Edition).
The Guardian
‘People arrived for work and got vaporised’:
how Kikuji Kawada captured the trauma of Hiroshima
The holy grail of Japanese photobooks, Kawada’s Chizu was five years in the making and changes hands for £25,000 a copy. Now a new edition revisits his personal archeology of a nation’s pain.
Conscientious Photography Magazine
The Background Story of Kikuji Kawada’s The Map
COLLECTOR DAILY
Kikuji Kawada, Los Caprichos 1968-1981 @L. Parker Stephenson Photographs
*Please check back as we fill in and add other press coverage of Kikuji Kawada’s exhibitions