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Craig Kucia

CRAIG KUCIA

act(ive) enclosure MAKI 20 November–22 December 2021 Omotesando, Tokyo
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Press Release

MAKI Gallery is pleased to present act(ive) enclosure, Los Angeles-based artist Craig Kucia’s first solo exhibition in Japan, which will be held at our Omotesando space. Kucia is known for his idiosyncratic practice which integrates his upbringing with rigorous art historical training. For his debut exhibition in Asia, a new series of intimately-scaled canvases will be featured along with five new paintings.

The exhibition title is drawn from the 18th and 19th century British Inclosure Acts, creating legal property rights to land previously held in common. Displaced by the process, tenants left the countryside to work in towns, providing the labor for the coming Industrial Revolution. act(ive) enclosure examines cause and effect, agency and culpability, and the ways in which our ancestors inadvertently participated in the early creation of today’s environmental crisis.

Employing archetypal imagery and technical trickery, Kucia’s thought-provoking paintings are far from linear, rather each painting contains multifaceted narratives within. The layered references and metaphors force the viewers to reflect on their own experience, inviting them to expand their field of perspective, ultimately bringing awareness to our place in the world. We invite you to take this opportunity to visit Craig Kucia’s first solo presentation at MAKI Gallery and attempt to parse out the hidden meanings behind each work.

Press Release: Courtesy of MAKI

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About the Artist

Craig Kucia was born in Cleveland, OH, and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1999 and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Arts (London) in 2003. Kucia creates whimsically eclectic paintings that delve into the kaleidoscopic interplay of memory and imagination. While the works evince the artist’s extensive understanding of art history by integrating references to various movements such as Surrealism, Pattern & Decoration, and Cubism, they simultaneously possess a robust resolve rooted in his working-class upbringing. Although certain motifs like whales or cacti make recurring appearances, Kucia experiments with a wide variety of animate and inanimate subjects, switching constantly between flat, graphic forms and richly textured materiality. His eccentric imagery and dramatic compositions invite viewers to embark on a psychological journey, inspiring them to invent their own narratives and interpretations.

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Also Exhibiting at MAKI

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Tomohito Ushiro
TOMOHITO USHIRO Welcome to The Country MAKI 9 May–20 June 2026 Tennoz, Tokyo
About the Gallery

MAKI Gallery was first established in Tokyo in 2003, with the aim of promoting works by seminal avant-garde Japanese artists of the 1950s-60s. The gallery has since gradually shifted its focus to working with emerging contemporary artists. After opening a location in the bustling, high-end shopping district of Omotesando in 2014, MAKI Gallery opened an expansive, museum-caliber space in the growing gallery hub of Tennoz in 2020. Across these two outposts, MAKI Gallery presents a broad range of works by internationally active artists, including Mungo Thomson, Miya Ando, Susumu Kamijo, and Marius Bercea, while also introducing younger Japanese artists, such as Anne Kagioka Rigoulet, Keisuke Tada, and Takuro Tamura, to a global audience. The gallery has also participated in various international art fairs such as Frieze New York, The Armory Show, Asia NOW, and West Bund Art & Design.

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Address
4-11-11 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo
Japan
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Saturday
11.30am – 7pm
(1)
Tokyo 4-11-11 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
MAKI contemporary art gallery in Omotesando Tokyo Japan
MAKI
4-11-11 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan
+81 364 347 705
http://www.makigallery.com

Opening hours
Tuesday – Saturday
11.30am – 7pm
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