Sculpture by Yasue Maetake is seen through the lenses of protoscience, theology, and craft production and utilizes "terrestrial substances" borrowed from marine life, bones, fossils, metals, polymers, wood, fiber, and quartz. Inspired by classical subtractive techniques, she produces luminescent surfaces that conjure an illusion of unexpected intermixing, beyond the reality of material melting points. The work engages with the field of somaesthetics and the relationship between human consciousness and technology and hypothesizes that evolving human consciousness from material substance may find unforeseen possibilities for creativity. Maetake envisions materials as living agents experiencing akin to procreation and mortality, with her sculptures evoking a life cycle that is continually renewing itself. The art emphasizes the alchemical and immaterial nature that falls within the vacillation between the nonrepresentational, whether manmade, natural, or divine.
BIO
Yasue Maetake (b. 1973) is a Tokyo-born New York based artist, originally trained in glass engraving in Japan, the Czech Republic, and Germany before settling in New York City. Her work has been exhibited at numerous national and international institutions such as Espacio 1414 at the Berezdivin Collection, San Juan, Puerto Rico; Queens Art Museum, New York; 10th Sonsbeek, Arnhem, Netherlands; and ASU Art Museum, Arizona, amongst others. Solo exhibitions include Fons Welters, Amsterdam, The Chimney, New York, Microscope, New York, and Nina Johnson, Miami, and others. Maetake’s work has been featured in Sculpture Magazine and reviewed in Artforum, The New York Times, ArtAsiaPacific, FlashArt, amongst others. Maetake was named one of “20 international women advancing the field of sculpture” by Artsy, is a recipient of the NYFA Fellowship in Sculpture, and she also completed a residency in the studio of El Anatsui in Ghana sponsored by a research grant from the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan. Yasue Maetake earned her MFA from Columbia University in New York.