Night Bloom Central

Ulterior Gallery is pleased to present Night Bloom Central, the first New York solo exhibition of works by the Danish-Japanese artist Silas Inoue. Night Bloom Central can be seen as an undefined, imaginary place—maybe a train station with no geographical location, a futuristic garden, or a city inhabited by non-human entities. At the same time, this title also points to the unique ability of mold organisms to thrive in dark environments. Inoue’s first intimate experience with these organisms were caused by a flood at his studio, which led to the growth of mold on some of his stored works. Cohabitating with the mold, he saw the beauty in these organisms—a beauty thriving in his studio that was not under his control. Inoue uses a wide range of materials including bronze, wood, concrete, as well as more unconventional mediums, such as sugar, cooking oil, microbes, and carefully selected trash from the streets of Copenhagen and New York City. Infrastructure, one of the works on view, resembles an imaginary cityscape—the inner compositions built of wood and inhabited by hundreds of different fungal species, which are cultivated by smearing dairy products onto the wood. The work, and the exhibition Night Bloom Central in general, speaks about the networks and interconnectedness that exists between organisms, environments and civilizations, both strange and familiar, that reside in a delicate state of non-human otherness. Silas Inoue was born in 1981 and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, Denmark in 2010. He currently lives and works in Copenhagen. Inoue’s work has been widely exhibited internationally; recent exhibitions include Minimalism-Maximalism-Mechanissmmm, Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea (2022); Naturen Taler #1, Sorø Kunstmuseum, Sorø, Denmark (2021); eat & becʘ̃me, Augustiana Kunsthal, Augustiana, Denmark (2020, solo); and Altering, Lothringer 13, Munich, Germany (2019). In addition, the artist’s sculptures are currently on view at Arken Museum of Modern Art, Bornholms Kunsmuseum, and Gammel Holtegaard, in Denmark. Many notable collections include his artwork, such as: Danish Arts Foundation, Bornholm Art Museum, Noma, and Horsens Kunstmuseum, where his first museum solo exhibition is scheduled to open in 2023. Night Bloom Central is supported by The Danish Arts Foundation and Grosser L. F. Foghts Fond. Photo credit: Jason Mandella & Sebastian Bach