Small Worlds

Trained as an architect, Japan-born, Los Angeles-based artist Yutaka Sone eventually turned to models rather than built structures as the focus of his practice. He creates miniature worlds where urbanist fantasies, manipulated landscapes, and cultural approaches to leisure materialize, but rather than using the cold and perfectly-scaled virtual material of computer rendering software, Sone has taken up a surprising variety of physical media. From his crystal snowflakes to acrylic paintings of ski resorts, each of his works has a tactile, handmade quality. The installation, It seems Like a Snow Leopard Island, is a self-contained environment of glaciers, running water, and tropical plants created on a scale that--consciously or not--reflects the reach of the artist's body. It is the centerpiece of the first UK exhibition of the artist's work, Secret for Snow Leopard: Yutaka Sone, which opens at London's