Baby Banana Tree

source: webbetapasadena

“Although a tree sculpture might seem right at home in a garden location, Yutaka Sone’s Baby Banana Tree (2008) appears somewhat alien to its setting. For one thing, this “baby” tree is huge, with a broad, 16-foot wide canopy of umbrella-like leaves and a 25-foot-high center stalk. Its colors seem curious as well, more suited to a cartoon tropical forest than the semi-desert climate of Pasadena. Nonetheless, with bright hues and a sharply-defined form, Sone’s tree is a cheerful misfit, exuding a sense of proud individualism and unquenchable optimism. Yutaka Sone, who holds degrees in Fine Arts and Architecture from Tokyo Geijutsu University, often finds ways to blur distinctions between the natural and human-made worlds. Though the majority of his work is sculptural, he also makes installations, films, and paintings, often incorporating elements of performance into his creations. Baby Banana Tree, commissioned for the Boone Sculpture Garden, was fabricated in Guadalajara, Mexico out of fiberglass and mixed media, then hand-painted onsite by the artist over several months. Evidence of this “live art” process remains in the multi-colored paint splatters dappling the sculpture cement foundation. Sone works and exhibits internationally, maintaining studios in Los Angeles, Japan, China, as well as Guadalajara.”
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source: artspace

Whenever Sone creates a work, it is in search of “landscapes that people, including artists, will never know, can never dominate, and never reach,” he has stated. He has downsized mountain ranges until they don’t even fill the floor of a small gallery space—as in his project for the 2003 Venice Biennale’s Japanese pavilion—and, with Baby Banana Tree (2007-08), created a 25-foot-tall sculpture of a tropical plant that, despite its title, isn’t baby-sized at all.
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source: davidzwirner
Across a wide range of media—predominantly sculpture but also painting, drawing, photography, video, and performance—Yutaka Sone’s work revolves around a tension between realism and perfection. A conceptual framework, paired with a meticulous attention to detail, has characterized his practice since the early 1990s, informing equally his self-contained jungle environments, life-size roller coasters, magnified snowflakes, and staged events. His sculptural works in particular attest to a profound interest in landscapes, whether natural or architectural, and their ability to capture light relates them to a genre primarily associated with painting and photography.
Born in 1965 in Shizuoka, Japan, Sone studied fine art and architecture at Tokyo Geijutsu University. In 1999, the artist joined David Zwirner, where he had his first United States solo exhibition that same year, marking the first of five at the gallery in New York. His first solo presentation at David Zwirner in London was on view November 27, 2013 to January 25, 2014.
A two-person exhibition of work done in collaboration by Sone and Benjamin Weissman is currently presented at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in California (through April 5, 2014). Sone’s work was recently the subject of two solo exhibitions in Tokyo: Perfect Moment at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in 2011 and Snow at the Maison Hermès Le Forum in 2010. Baby Banana Tree, the artist’s 25-foot tall hand-painted sculpture, was installed in 2009 as a major public artwork at the Boone Sculpture Garden at Pasadena City College in Pasadena, California.
Other venues which have hosted important solo exhibitions include Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London (2007); Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Aspen Art Museum, Colorado; The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago (all 2006); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2003); and the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan (2002). The artist represented Japan, along with Motohiko Odani, at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003.
Sone has participated in a number of group exhibitions in the United States and abroad, including Glasstress 2011, organized as part of the 54th Venice Biennale at the Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti, Istituto Veneto di Scienze Lettere ed Arti (2011). A version of the show traveled to the Museum of Arts and Design, New York (2012). Other major group shows include the 12th Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach, Fellbach, Germany (2013); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2004); 25th São Paulo Biennial; 13th Biennale of Sydney (both 2002); 7th Istanbul Biennial (2001); 48th Venice Biennale (1999); among others.
Work by the artist is held in international museum collections, including The Art Institute of Chicago; High Museum, Atlanta, Georgia; Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives and works in Los Angeles.
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source: theglassmagazine
The Japanese artist Yutaka Sone is presently in London showcasing his latest exhibition, Sculpture, at the highly respected David Zwirner gallery, which displays the wide variety of his sculpting work, from intricate marble creations to his tropical palm tree installations.
Now based in LA, Yutaka is a well-known artist for even those who take even a tangential interest in the world of art. A painter, sculptor and one of the best representations the word “artist” connotes. A man whose passion and rich intensity exudes to the point where it’s not only visible in the detail and philosophy behind his work, but simply from standing next to him.