SOM GALLERY is delighted to announce "The Untouchable Body", a duo show by Matthew Monahan and Aiku Kurotaki on view from August 16 to September 14. This exhibition aims to present a redefinition of the sculpture in the art context, as well as the potential for critical reflection on systems, memory, and perception, through the artistic practices of Matthew Monahan and Aiku Kurotaki—two artists from different generations and cultural backgrounds.

Matthew Monahan (b. 1972 in the U.S.) lives and works in Los Angeles. Monahan skillfully employs mixed media, incorporating diverse materials such as craft paper and found objects to create sculptures imbued with an uncanny sense of mystery. Drawing on influences from art history and modernism, he expresses forms and textures that evoke the fragmented grandeur of Greco-Roman statuary through his own distinctive methods. His works radiate a profound sense of tension, capturing the dichotomy between decay and endurance, and prompting viewers to reflect on the nature of time and beauty. Monahan’s practice extends beyond sculpture to include two-dimensional works such as drawings and monoprints, characterized by richly layered and multidimensional surfaces. His works have already been collected by Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago and Rubell Family Collection, and exhibited in a lot of international exhibitions.

Aiku Kurotaki (b. 2000 in Kanagawa, Japan) lives and works in Tokyo. He graduated from the Department of Textile Design, Tokyo Zokei University. Kurotaki focuses on creating three-dimensional works through the intersection of fibers to form textile structures, using a combination of warp and weft threads made by hand. In his representative work, the "Human" series, countless warp and weft threads are arranged in an iron empty box, in which a human figure is placed. By confining humans within the regular lines of the thread structure, Kurotaki highlights the patterned modern society and human thoughts. Through his works, he aims to bring out the emptiness of contemporary society and the perspectives he captures of humans, leading people to liberation from algorithms.

Despite their generational and cultural differences, both Monahan and Kurotaki construct a sculptural language that embraces emptiness, instability, and the aesthetics of fragmentation. Rooted in an attitude of deliberate incompleteness, their works inhabit a state of perpetual becoming—evading material certainty and resisting fixed meaning to awaken the viewer’s perceptual and cognitive awareness. Monahan reassembles mythological and art-historical remnants, embedding the fragility of matter and the irreversibility of time into sculptural form. Kurotaki, drawing from the structural logic and physical tension of textiles, reconfigures the human figure within the confines of institutional and informational systems. Together, their practices offer a critical re-reading of structure, material, and space, inviting a deeper reflection on how visibility, memory, and subjectivity are shaped—and unsettled—through the medium of art.