THREE

Whitestone Gallery Taipei is honored to present the Japanese art collective three in their solo exhibition 3²² three is a magic number 22, marking the group’s first solo presentation in Taiwan. Rooted in the practice of large-scale “deconstruction–reconstruction” of everyday objects, the exhibition revisits their iconic series while unveiling their largest new figurative sculpture to date. Visitors will encounter unfamiliar landscapes reconfigured from familiar materials, experiencing how art oscillating between playfulness and critique opens new ways of seeing. The works resonate with the fragmented nature of digital experiences in today’s online world and with the dynamics of mass consumer culture. The exhibition will run from September 27 to November 8, 2025, with the opening reception on September 27 at 4 PM, attended by the artists.

The Japanese art collective three was founded in 2009 by Hironori Kawasaki, Shuhei Sasaki, and Yoshitaro Koide, all born in 1986 in Fukushima, Japan. The group has consistently engaged in experimental practices using mass-produced everyday objects as their creative medium such as candies, old newspapers, soy-sauce fish containers, and anime or video game figurines. Their series of solo exhibitions have been presented internationally, including at the New Art Museum (Karuizawa, 2023), S.A.C. Gallery (Bangkok, 2020), Now Contemporary Art (Miami, 2016, 2014), and Micheko Galerie (Munich, 2014).

This exhibition offers a retrospective of the collective’s artistic trajectory. The title is drawn from American musician Bob Dorough’s song Three is a Magic Number, in which the number three is described as one of infinite potential—symbolizing the collective’s ongoing expansion and its unfolding in diverse forms. The presentation features work inspired by manga, anime, games, and music, and unveils their largest new figurative sculpture to date. Three-dimensional works melt down and reconstruct thousands of models into entirely new characters, with each piece titled after its own physical weight; two-dimensional works adopt the exact dimensions of televisions, computers, tablets, and phones, turning screens into tangible boundaries; while the Display series encapsulates figures within digital devices, blurring the line between image and material. The Bit series, constructed from the smallest units of information, takes the form of rectangular cubes to respond to the compression and distortion of data in the online world. Its marbled patterns evoke the disorientation and assimilation of individual consciousness in an era of information overload, rendering a cross-section of contemporary society.

The core of three’s practice lies in the themes of ‘mass production and consumption’ and ‘identity’. They deconstruct, dissolve, and reconfigure symbols drawn from pop culture, stripping them of their original narrative and coherence. What remains is the pure essence of ‘color’, ‘weight’, and ‘texture’, transformed into sculptures and installations charged with tension. Through this process, they construct unprecedented, unfamiliar landscapes that reflect the disorientation of humanity in an age overwhelmed by information.