Continuing through November 2, 2013
“Amulets” is the fitting word often used to describe Masao Yamamoto’s diminutive black-and-white photographs. They are austere in composition, subtle in their message and rich in atmospherics, thanks to Yamamoto’s studious eye and signature techniques in processing and mounting his works. All this makes each individual work a precious jewel that suggests why Yamamoto is on top of the art world in his native Japan.
Yamamoto has not shown here since the 1990s, but his return takes advantage of his inclusion in the concurrent exhibition “Narrow Road to the Interior: Contemporary Japanese Artists” at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. Yamamoto has a certain installation aesthetic of mounting his framed and unframed photographs in cascading patterns on the wall. While he did that for the SMoCA show, at Sette the decision was to simply group the artist’s 16 nudes together, then let the five additional small landscapes and portraits breathe on their own on each of five adjacent walls. Thus, the “Yamamoto experience” of quiet contemplation amid his dreamlike works - and not over-thinking them - is well matched to the gallery’s intimate space.
