Mariko Makino
Canopy

May 25 – July 3, 2022

Entrance is pleased to present Canopy, a solo exhibition of nine new works by New York based artist Mariko Makino.

Canopy encompasses a series of light sculptures worked into sinuous, lambent shapes that cast an aura throughout the space they inhabit. Makino’s sculptures are perched atop a table hand-built by the artist and arranged in formation that saturates the gallery environment in a diffuse glow. The tubes of neon are bent with fire by Makino into crescents and curves whose forms evoke the organic silhouettes of cascading trees and blossoming fauna. The neon is bound to carved wooden plinths in a method that mirrors bracing supports commonly found in both home gardening and arboriculture. Makino plays with light and form akin to Isamu Noguchi’s conception of akari – light as weightless illumination. Distinct from commercial neon signage that fleetingly demands consumers’ attention, Makino’s light sculptures create a shared sensorial atmosphere that invites the audience to dwell and bask in their radiance.

Mariko Makino (b. 1987, New York, NY) lives and works between Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown and Freehold, NY. Raised in Tokyo, Makino returned to New York to study at NYU, receiving a BA in 2010. Canopy is Makino’s second solo exhibition at Entrance, following her debut solo Rest Area (2018). Makino developed her first sculpture edition, the Sky Lights, during her time as artist-in-residence at Entrance in 2020.