Katsutoshi Yuasa: Miraculous opens at the ISE Cultural Foundation, NYC

Katsutoshi Yuasa, Pseudo Mythology 2, 2011, oil based woodcut with pigment on paper

I'm delighted to collaborate with New York's ISE Cultural Foundation on a stunning show of recent woodcuts by the young Japanese master, Katsutoshi Yuasa. Miraculous opens on November 9, 2012.  The reception, from 6 to 8pm, is sponsored by TAG Fine Arts and Sake Discoveries Inc.  Please join us for a glass to celebrate!

The artist will also be In Conversation on Saturday, November 10, 2012, from noon to 2pm.

Yuasa makes woodcut prints from his own digital photographs. By combining two processes – the camera’s ‘snapshot’ and the woodcut’s lengthy reinterpretation of the same image – he hopes to crystallise the atmospheric and emotional character of his subjects. His pieces take weeks to complete, transforming his ephemeral subjects into haunting images, as beautiful up close as from a distance.

Preview the exhibition catalogue, published by TAG, here.
For further information and to RSVP, contact Diana Ewer.
Katsutoshi Yuasa: Miraculous | Nov 9, 2012 - Jan 4, 2013
ISE Cultural Foundation | 555 Broadway | New York | NY 10012

Printmaking today: a commercial perspective

I've been invited to speak at the Second International Printmaking Symposium (SNAP) in Germany. I'll be talking about my experience in publishing, exhibiting and selling fine art prints.  The lecture will be part of a programme of events that celebrates contemporary printmaking and explores its future. 

SNAP is presented by the Print Association Bentlage and the cultural institution Kloster Bentlage in Rheine, Germany, from 27 - 30 September 2012. Directed at all those who are intellectually and creatively engaged in contemporary printmaking (from students and artists, to dealers and collectors), the symposium will provide an international platform to discuss the aesthetic, philosophical, cultural and technical potential of the medium. The symposium will include lectures, discussions, workshops, trade displays and exhibitions in a programme spanning four days and multiple venues.

Japanese woodcut artist Katsutoshi Yuasa will also be previewing works at SNAP in advance of his forthcoming solo exhibition ‘Miraculous’ that opens at the ISE Cultural Foundation in NYC this November.

Image details: Katsutoshi Yuasa, Listen, nature is full of songs and truth, 2012, woodcut on paper

Video of the exhibition "A Cut Above: 12 Paper Masters"

Just in case you missed it, a video of A Cut Above can now be viewed online that includes a number of interviews with participating artists. To listen to what they have to say about the show and their work, please click here.

Sincere thanks to the Christopher Henry Gallery, the artists involved in making the film and the Streaming Museum - an organisation focused on helping artists and curators reach new audiences across the globe.

 A Cut Above: 12 Paper Masters (Images Courtesy of the Christopher Henry Gallery)

"Katsutoshi Yuasa: Miraculous" Fall Exhibition

Katsutoshi Yuasa, An Impossible Extreme Reality #1, 2011
oil based woodcut on paper, 163 x 122 cm, 64.2 in x 48 in

The ISE Cultural Foundation has generously awarded a grant to present a solo exhibition of contemporary woodcuts by the young Japanese master Katsutoshi Yuasa. Miraculous, curated by Diana Ewer opens on November, 2, 2012 to coincide with New York's print week. Until January 4, 2013, he exhibits a new series of woodcuts made in the aftermath of Japan’s devastating earthquake in March 2011. Abroad at the time, the Internet became a vital source of information through which the artist was able to piece together a narrative of events, and relate to the suffering his friends and family in Japan were experiencing first hand.

Katsutoshi Yuasa: Miraculous is, in part, based on images of natural disasters culled from the Internet, translated by the artist into hauntingly permanent post-apocalyptic woodcuts on an epic scale: the largest measures 8 by 10 ft. Meticulously hand-crafted, these works echo the pixelated raster-graphic structure of digital images lifted from the web, yet Yuasa carefully edits and filters his material. His woodcuts are the end result of a long spiritual and creative journey through which he hopes to crystallize the emotive character of his subjects’ inner world. Each woodcut takes weeks to complete, as Yuasa painstakingly translates details of light and shadow onto plywood ready for printing, allowing the works to metamorphose through his process. The finished woodcuts exist as objects and images in their own right, removed from the original narratives that inspired them, but still communicating an abstract appeal of dramatic proportions. Yuasa sees this transformation as an act of purification. The changes he makes to the images are a means of grasping a higher truth or meaning – something miraculous – surpassing the realities that inspired him.

 

Opening Reception with Sake Tasting: Friday, November 2, 2012, 6 – 8pm

Artist and Curator In Conversation: Saturday, November 3, 2012, 12 noon – 2pm

In Conversation includes a demonstration of the printing woodcut process by the artist

For further an invitation, press information and preview check list, please contact me.

A full exhibition catalogue has been funded by TAG Fine Arts the artist's London based gallery and publisher. 

Katsutoshi Yuasa, Pseudo Mythology #3, 2011, oil based woodcut on paper
243 x 488 cm, 95.6 in x 192.1 in

Katsutoshi Yuasa, Slow Screaming #1, 2011, oil based woodcut with on paper
61 x 91.5 cm, 24 in x 36 in

Katsutoshi Yuasa, Slow Screaming #2, 2011, oil based woodcut with on paper
61 x 91.5 cm, 24 in x 36 in

Katsutoshi Yuasa, Slow Screaming #3, 2011, oil based woodcut with on paper
61 x 91.5 cm, 24 in x 36 in

"A Cut Above" closing date extended to July 15...

Due to popular demand "A Cut Above: 12 Paper Masters" runs for another three bonus weeks at the Christopher Henry Gallery.  Recent show reviews can be found here: Felt and Wire,  Huffington Post, and Strictly Paper. For a complete show preview click here to view the exhibition catalogue. A celebration and closing party at the gallery will take place on  Thursday, July 12, from 6 to 9 pm. All welcome. Please RSVP to diana@dianaewer.com.

First floor gallery installation shot

Second floor gallery installation shot (close up)

Second floor gallery installation shot

Chris Gilmour shapes British legend entirely out of cardboard boxes

Chris Gilmour, The Triumph of Good and Evil, 2011, Cardboard and glue, Life-size Photo credit: Photo Mattias

The Triumph Of Good And Evil by the UK born sculptor, Chris Gilmour, is made entirely out of corrugated cardboard.  A recent work, he designed the 13ft life-sized St George and the dragon sculpture from discarded boxes he found in the streets that shopkeepers had left out for recycling in his home town of Udine, North Italy.  The artist comments, ‘The piece took two months to make and is based on a study of classical statues, typically made in bronze .... The work is a consideration of the idea of polarising, or simplifying the concept of right and wrong and the idea that ‘evil’ can be defeated by heroic combat'. 

Chris Gilmour received his BA from the University of the West of England, Bristol and studied at South Trafford College, Manchester. He has exhibited his work internationally since 1998 and has had recent solo shows in Italy and the United States.  He received Italy’s Premio Cairo award in 2007.  He was also included in Slash: Paper Under the Knife at the Museum of Art and Design, NY. His work can be found in numerous private and public collections including the Zabludowicz Collection, UK. This sculpture is a central component of the exhibition, A Cut Above: 12 Paper Masters that opens at the Christopher Henry Gallery on May 10 and runs until June 24. 


Recent press links: METRO, The Daily Telegraph, and Yahoo.

Jaq Belcher: Paper Meditations

My works are created using a single sheet of paper, a pencil and an Exacto knife.

Through this work I explore aspects of consciousness and alternative states of being. The focus is on the process of reduction and repetition, and derives from musings on the manipulation of matter. This practice allows and requires stillness. The process hones concentration and therefore the power of the mind through focus.

The exploration of these ideas began taking a visual direction as I was pondering the beauty of a single expanse of white paper. How can one enhance such a simple and beautiful void? And so the process of reduction was born with the resulting works being quietly patterned and complex. They are, a proclamation if you will, to the power of silence, and testify to the practice of 'being' in the moment and completely 'present'.

 The work is created in, and intended for natural light, which allows the spectrum of white light to be visible through reflection and angles of the paper. The pieces draw on the presence of the viewer and the inner self that stands before each piece. I am inspired by a wide pool of references, from eastern and western meditation  practices, inner alchemy, esoteric philosphy and the study of sacred geometry.

Artwork and statement by Jaq Belcher

Jaq Belcher, Access Point, 2012, Hand cut paper, 5,071 cuts

 

Jaq Belcher, Access Point, 2012, (detail)

Jaq Belcher, Form is Empty, 2011, Hand cut paper, 5,823 cuts

Doug Beube: Breaking the Codex

Doug Beube, Masked Vocabulary, 2011, Altered dictionary and book, metal, marble and wood

Doug Beube, Partition, 2006, Altered books

Doug Beube, Interlocutors, 1996, Altered books

My work explores the book itself, a seemingly antiquated technology that is still purposeful in a digital age. The codex, which literally means a block of wood in Latin, is undeviating in its essential form; its fixity is antithetical to the capabilities of the computer to function on a synergetic/simultaneous plane. Although the codex, compared to computers, is undeniably limited in its capacity to store, perpetuate, generate and recreate information, I accept these boundaries. (I’m not referring to the paginated works of Artists’ Books; this is an entirely different category that has flourished with various software programs; Artists Books remain an open-ended medium.) I apply quasi-software functions such as cutting, pasting and hidden text (utilized in the bookwork Amendment and Border Crossing), for example, onto an analogue system; it does not work it cannot. The codex is intractable as a technology; you read linearly from beginning to end. It is essentially inflexible. That is its built-in personality flaw; that is its elegance.

I began changing the books structure in 1979 by pushing the physical properties of the book, piercing, gouging and excavating it, as if it were a thrilling, previously undiscovered site in an archeological dig. As an artist my goal is to transform how a book functions outside a linear read for an outdated technology, the codex, becomes something that is new and visually meaningful.

My sculptures primarily use discarded and organic materials, such as books for example, which the viewer will recognize for their utilitarian quality. On occasion I will purchase a book or fabricate materials for a specific idea, such as the steel rod and wooden leg in The Portable Library. The viewer visually engages with the re-contextualized object, which might otherwise have gone unnoticed in its customary setting, and participates in its transformation through a critique or dialogue. To visually engage with the object as a phenomenological experience, is my objective; beyond concept, above references, each piece explores the reciprocity between meaning and structure as comprehended subliminally through the senses.

Artwork and statement by Doug Beube

I work with a pair of scissors and the precision of a surgeon to transform paper into intricately detailed designs and delicate, almost lace-like patterns.  Inspired by Matsuo Basho’s haiku and the writings of Charles Baudelaire and Voltaire, I extract passages and transform them into meticulous works of art that appear to be laser cut.  I am also inspired by nature, fantasy and elements of my native Japanese culture.  I mix traditional and modern styles to produce a unique world of images, one that resonates with wonder, ethereal beauty and magnificent detail.

Artwork and statement by Hina Aoyama

Hina Aoyama, Papillon I, 2012, Cut paper with scissors

Hina Aoyama, Papillon II, 2012, Cut paper with scissors

Opening this May at the Christopher Henry Gallery, NYC, the exhibition "A Cut Above: 12 Paper Masters" will pay homage to a group of international established and emerging artists working with cut paper and books.

Exhibiting artists include: Hina Aoyama, Jaq Belcher, Doug Beube, Zoe Bradley, Brian Dettmer, Danielle Durchslag, Adam Fowler, Chris Gilmour, Dylan Graham, Guy Laramée, Pablo Lehmann and Thomas Witte.

Show dates: May 10 - July 15,  2012
Opening night: Thursday, May 10, 6 - 9 pm
Closing party: Thursday, July 12, 6 - 9 pm

Dylan Graham, The Stars Never Lie But The Astrologs Lie About The Stars, 2009, Hand Cut Archival Paper

Brian Dettmer, Standard American, 2008, Altered Set of Vintage Encyclopedias, 
Image Courtesy of Kinz and Tillou Fine Art

Daniella Durchslag, Baby IV, 2010, Cut Papers