Press Release

MAKI Gallery is pleased to announce Nearly Natural, Los Angeles-based artist Erin Wright’s first solo exhibition in Japan, at MAKI Gallery / Tennoz, Tokyo. In this compelling new body of work, Wright rigorously examines the contemporary condition through the precise and potent metaphor of bonsai, uncovering a nuanced dialogue between disciplined cultivation and the aesthetics of self-styling.

At the core of the exhibition lies the artist’s incisive conceptual parallel: the bonsai tree as a mirror for the modern bachelor. This unexpected yet trenchant comparison illuminates the intricate discipline, restraint, and aesthetic control inherent in both the cultivation of bonsai and the often unseen grooming rituals of the single man. Wright posits that just as bonsai are shaped through guided growth and careful intervention, so too are individuals subjected to invisible structures of taste, identity, and desirability. The resulting forms exist in a state of continuous transformation, embodying a sophisticated blend of organic integrity and social performance.

Nearly Natural offers a multifaceted meditation on the art of cultivation, control, and the pervasive human impulse to shape both nature and self. Through her meticulously rendered bonsai portraits, Wright presents a compelling and humorous inquiry into the construction of identity in the contemporary world.

Press release: Written by Chelsea Rana

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About the Artist

Born in Memphis, TN in 1990, Erin Wright received a BFA from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 2012 and an M.Arch (Master of Architecture) from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2016. Currently based in Los Angeles and an adjunct professor of architecture at Woodbury University, Wright expands upon the legacy of still life painting with a distinct style that echoes the uncanny precision and waxy surfaces of computer-generated renderings. Citing “indifference” as her guiding principle, the artist wields exacting control over her brush, making sure not to leave behind any noticeable strokes that betray her hand or presence. Wright’s compositions eschew traditional perspective for isometric projection, a method used in architectural drawings to represent three-dimensional objects in two dimensions. The lack of a vanishing point allows the artist to place her subjects non-hierarchically within the picture plane; various motifs, like wine glasses, tennis balls, or bonsai trees, appear iteratively across multiple canvases and lead the viewer’s eye through a carefully choreographed narrative. Each painting is an enigmatic vignette—a single frame of a larger story that highlights the ways in which cultural norms and individual psychological states inform our daily existence, from the most minute details of interior design to universally entrenched social customs. Despite touching on such grand themes, the work remains fluid and familiar enough for the viewer to cultivate their own interpretations of the artist’s striking and layered imagery.

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Also Exhibiting at MAKI

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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Tokyo 1-33-10 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku
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Opening hours
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11:30am – 7pm
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