Tokyo Art Guy

watch?v=l6sM14ee7CA

I grew up in the US where greeting cards were rather flimsy things that you bought at the local drugstore–the emphasis was usually on humor or romance.

I didn’t realize that there was another cultural tradition of hand-made greeting cards that exists in European countries.

Hand-made Christmas Cards from Natalie Wilden

Natalie Wilden, our good friend, a German artist who has lived in Tokyo since 2000, creates unique Christmas cards that are a unique combination of Eastern and Western influences. The inspiration for the cards are drawn from nature, architecture, and design. Japanese Washi paper is her favourite means of expression. They are miniature works of art–some people send them, some frame them.

Hand-made Christmas Cards from Natalie Wilden

Every Christmas Natalie brings out a special collection of new cards which we will have in the gallery soon.  Some samples are shown here. I think they are great.

Very happy to see the new work from Michiko Fujii, now married and known as Michiko Fujii Fowler.  We have her work at the Westin Tokyo which got good response and now she has let us know of her new works.  I love her use of paint, the texture, the depth.

Michiko Fujii Fowler

She stayed in France as part of a Japan Foundation grant. Her work is large in scale and feeling.

When I went into the gallery yesterday to open for the Indonesian show, I was glad to see that we had a package from Takako Sato whose works literally run off the walls of our gallery since our clients love them so much.

Takako Sato

I had to set up the gallery but I could not wait to open the package from her.  I postponed putting up the open sign so I could take a look at what she sent me, and I was not disappointed.  We received 3 small works–yellow, red, blue–all elegant and beautiful.  She prints in very small editions, usually editions of 6, and she studied with Junji Amano and is a friend of Ono Kouseki both of whom we work with as well.  Her prints are like paintings and have considerable depth, and a very Japanese feeling also.

In our show that opens on Friday, we will show the works of Agus Purnomo and I Nengah Sujena. I have written about Agus Purnomo previously so here I write about I Nengah Sujena.

The Kiss 90 x 70

I like his work as well as his values and his loyalty to his family and where he is from. Originally from Bali, he went to art school in Yogyakarta and then stayed in Yogya for several years.  When the Tsunami devastated Bali, he returned there and produced many paintings which he sold to benefit those whose lives were impacted by the tsunami.

I Nengah Sujena Daun Emas

He expresses his emotions on canvas and the focus is love, peace and harmony. His canvases, large and small, are rich in texture with his simple shapes full of symbolic meaning, voicing the songs of peace and calmness in his mind.  Many of his images are reframed from classical Balinese imagery.

Bottle and Apple

I like the colors too–very vivid, and he uses unusual choices and combinations, but it all works, making for works that are spiritual and beautiful. There is also a sense of humor in his work.  We had a painting of an elephant from him and it literally flew off the wall to a client who walked in and said ‘I’ll take it.”  Ditto for his works showing a house, and a cat.  His work strikes a chord with many of our clients.

The first call of the day was from Ryota Aoki.  Hitoshi met him today and they talked about his program on TV last night and his new work.  Hope you had a chance to see the program–it showed him at work and in a NYC gallery too.  I was surprised to learn that now he has 4 assistants.  It is great to see one of our artists achieve the level of success where he can employ others to help with his work.

Here’s a nice photo that Hitoshi took of what we have in the gallery now. From left to right, Sake container, tamago cup, bowl with glaze and in the front, his new plates.

Ryota Aoki Ceramic Works

It’s a ridiculous question, but I hear it a lot.

Why are people  surprised when they see the wonderful works we have from Japanese artists?

One reason is that works by young Japanese artists are  not visible to people in Japan.

It makes sense–after all there is very little good art in places where most Japanese people go–not much in companies, nothing in malls, nothing or very little in government offices.  So people think there is nothing good around. That’s wrong.

Atsushi Takahashi

In fact, there is a lot of good work around, but people never get to see it.  That’s why it’s a good idea to go to galleries.  We show some samples here  from young Japanese artists. Mostly what you see in many museums is not contemporary art or even Japanese art.

Yoko Kawazoe

The work above by Yoko Kawazoe is now at the Westin Hotel in an Exhibition for the Pink Ball.

Joji Shimamoto

The current show includes works by Ono Kouseki, Joji Shimamoto and Mario Tauchi.  The next show opens on Friday and will include the best in Indonesian Art.  We will have young Indonesian artists who have never shown in Tokyo before.

The crates are in and some are unpacked.  We have new works from gallery favorites Nengah Sujena and Agus Purnomo as well as works from Untung and prints from Sunaryo.  We will open the show on October 30 and will have an Indonesian Festa all weekend.  Here are 2 works from I Nengah Sujena that we will feature.  These are oil paintings on canvas.

The paint is very heavy and textured.  What I like about him besides his work is his social conscience.  He was living in Yogyakarta after art university but when the Tsunami created a crisis in Bali, he moved to Bali and produced many works and donated the money from the works to benefit people who were devastated by the tsunami.

It’s been a year in the making but this coming Sunday night October 25  at 11 PM, Ryota Aoki will have his own one hour TV program, Jounetsu.  Even if you don’t speak Japanese, you can turn the sound off and still have a great sense of what he does. We hope you have a chance to watch it and if you don’t, we will get it up on you tube eventually. Here is the link and more  info in Japanese.

http://www.mbs.jp/jounetsu/2009/10_25.shtml
The link below is for Ryota Aoki’s last NHK program from a while back. It is also in Japanese but beautiful to watch–even with the sound off.

http://bit.ly/PYSGQ

Ryota Aoki  has an interesting story and of course you know, beautiful work.  We have just received a shipment from him and have some put together some sets of his works in the gallery now.  Please do drop by.

The last three days of the current Geometrics Show are this coming Friday Saturday and Sunday 1-7 PM.  [We finish this show on Sunday the 25th and open our Indonesian show on the 30th]

This is a great show and we still  have selected works available from Thongchai Yuktanpornpong from Thailand,Agus Purnomo from  Indonesia, and Ono Kouseki and Mario Tauchi  from Japan [above], so please come by.

We have also recently added some small works by Ono Kouseki[above], and some small prints and gift items from around the world–just in case you want do get  a head start on your Xmas shopping.

So bloody hot here now.  And many Japanese shops do not turn up the air conditioning so there is literally no place to escape.  Art Galleries are the same.  With increased expenses, many don’t even turn on all of the lights, and they flick on the lights when a customer walks in.

We go to our summer hours now with a lot of travel to see our artists and find some new works.  Basically now we are open by appointment, but will have two open houses on August 16 and August 30 in the afternoon and then will open a new show with works like these from young Japanese artists in early September.

Joji Shimamoto

Ono Kouseki

We are very fortunate to have made contact with Ono Kouseki who was a  top three finalists in the Shiseido Egg Competition.  He works with several galleries and has decided to let us represent him here in Tokyo so we are able to get some of his best works.  We have three large works in the gallery now which he made last year and we showed them on opening night.

Last week, he also brought us two smaller works–they are good examples of his new techniques–he just finished them this month.  We have never had so many of his works in the gallery, so please come by and you can have your pick.

Ono Kouseki