Born in Japan, Kariya moved to the United States in 1977, where he has been based in New York ever since as a US citizen.

  Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Kariya became renowned for his prolific practice both in Japan and overseas, and has participated in numerous exhibitions, including an invitation to the Sound Show; a special project at MoMA PS1 alongside Vito Acconci, Nancy Holt, and Denise Oppenheim, where Kariya made a water pool sound instrument, and entered the pool to become the instrument himself as part of the work: the sound. Other exhibitions include his solo show “Sutra” at the * Note 1ICA, Philadelphia in 1990, and invitation in the four-artist show “Open System” at Art Tower Mito, Japan, together with CAI Guo Qiang.

  In 2017, he had a solo exhibition entitled “It’s all about the one piece, and millions of others” where he showed the series “Seed Sutra” – fundamental to his daily work, in Tokyo after a long silence. A prototype of this installation has also been shown at the opening exhibtion of Mizuma & Kips and at The Armory Show in 2019.

  For many years, Kariya has been developing work based on the concept of sutra, or string, sanscrit, to bind the pages of book.

One of his work,  * Note 2“Seed Sutra” comprises of writing the three words “the now is” onto one handfull amounts of seed every single day.

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  For him, the act of writing “the now is” pertains to pointing at an exact moment between reality/illusion, truth/false, and fabrication/creation.

The work represents a tool for measuring its surface, through it to the illusion of meditation.

  For this exhibition, we will present an installation that has various faces separated from newspaper articles as well as articles with their faces cut out, placed on both side of the walls, to have the work all face each other.

These articles, named "face-off sutra" by Kariya, serve as evidence that the faces did indeed exist at one time, and also serve as a reference.

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  Visitors not only see works of various faces displayed to cover the walls of the venue, but also get to walk on top of these artworks that are laid out on the floor. As you enjoy the installation, you will inevitably become part of the work and its space.
 

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  The image is enlarged from the process photo/video documentation of the work for each production, time after time. Seeds have a front and reverse.

  On the other side, * Note 3 the face was cut out from the news article and pasted, it called “Face Sutra" by Kariya.

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  Wall installation, the image was taken from the video clips from those random layered of transparent specimen boxes. 

   The exhibition creates a space where the audience may walk on entered the work. Experience the illusion to step on the image or just participate in the work. Then, experiment and verify a new illusion.

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    * Note 1
    The ICA exhibition was divided into three parts, one of which was demolishing the temporary wall of the previous exhibition Ilya Kabakov and displaying it on the archeological grid. Behind the wall, temporary walls such as Andy Wahol and Christ were exposed. The waste materials were sorted according to the memories of the parties involved in the on-site work, and were arranged behind the “Memory Wall" installed at this exhibition. The audience examines the surface with the archeological markings.

   * Note 2
    This is an ongoing production work that describes the three letters "the now is" on the front and back of a handful of bean seeds a day. Some have only one handful per day, and some have only one palm per day. As of December 31, 2019, the number reached to 1068850 tablets. Yet for him is a single sentence of "the now is".

     * Note 3

    This exhibition, seems the library of faces with the audience to participate as entering the exhibit field is. People may confused of their own identity.
Through the works, Kariya examines the illusions contained in a face individually, or just an object, maybe subject of its potential, and/or anonymity.
The meaning and impression of many faces scattered throughout in the gallery is left to the attributes and histories of the audience and presents a variety of experiences, the joy of puzzle with illusion.​
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