Category: Living Arts


Aug.08

Steve Beimel’s Collected Facebook Posts 5/24~30

Aug.08

“Moon Waves” is a contemporary work of art created in washi, traditional handmade Japanese paper, which the artist creates with raw pigment-colored mulberry bark fibers. Thin tengujo washi and silk are also part of the work. Having lived her entire adult life in Kyoto, artist Sarah Brayer is one of the world’s leading artists working…

July.31

Steve Beimel’s Collected Facebook Posts 3/1~15

July.31

Ceramic Artist:  FUKAMI Sueharu, large celedon porcelain sculpture 深見陶治作、青磁の彫刻 ニュース: 伝統工芸再生コンテストー7月6日 オンラインアワードセレモニー News: Traditional Craft Revitalization Contest-July 6th On-line Awards Ceremony Ceramic Artist: KOHYAMA Yasuhisa, Shigaraki stoneware vase 神山易久作、信楽焼、 Architect: Keiji Ashizawa Design, mountain retreat home 芦沢啓治建築設計事務所:山の別荘 Made in Kyoto’s Nishijin district, this Kimono Obi (sash) is one of the great craft treasures of Japan….

July.26

Architect AOKI Jun Designs Three Vuitton Shop Facades by Charles Bernstein AIA

July.26

Jun Aoki has once again customized the luxury brand Louis Vuitton with another unique façade for Ginza Namiki Store. He has remade the façade of the building previously designed by him in 2007. The earlier design utilized painted aluminum sheets in a textural pattern that expressed both solidity and lightness. This remade façade is brilliant…

June.13

Japanese Karakami Woodblock Printed Paper

June.13 Gail Rieke

Karakami is woodblock printed ornamental paper displaying patterned motifs and designs with ancient significance for decorative applications to walls and sliding screens. This video follows two skilled artisans who are using collections of woodblocks carved over past times as well as original designs to bring this artform into contemporary use and consciousness. Video : https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/2029154/

May.22

Nuno

May.22

In Layering Sukesuke is all in how things show through. NUNO inserts small, light objects between layers of sheer silk organdy to accentuate the translucency. This is much more laborious than it sounds: computer-driven looms must be stopped over and over again, row after row, so that feathers can be hand-positioned. Alternatively, organdy is shot through…

May.13

Fascinating Japanese Photography by Sophie Bernard

May.13 Steve Beimel

@Untitled, from the series « Pretty Woman », 2017 © Daido Moriyama Photo Foundation. Courtesy of Akio Nagasawa Gallery Two outstanding 20th century Japanese photographers featured in an exhibition in Paris, entitled Moriyama–Tōmatsu: Tokyo. Venue: Maison Européenne de la Photographie Daido Moriyama and Shomei Tōmatsu had envisaged this project together, but the death of the…

May.08

Japanese Hikihaku Weaving (9-minute video)

May.08 Steve Beimel

 The Victoria and Albert Museum introduces one of the world’s greatest textile treasures, Japanese Hikihaku, an age-old weaving process that combines silk, handmade paper, gold leaf and such things as lapis lazuli or mother-of-pearl. Follow the process from concept to completion as overseen by 10th generation textile producer Kondaya Genbei, in Kyoto.

May.03

Japanese Women Artists You Should Know: Meet Kajiwara Hisako

May.03 Alice Gordenker

Few people today have heard of Kajiwara Hisako (梶原緋佐子, 1896-1988) so it is welcome news indeed that four of her paintings have been included in a major exhibition in Japan this year. Kajiwara was a Nihonga painter, active in Kyoto, who worked primarily in the “bijinga” genre of lusciously detailed images of idealized female beauty….

Apr.15

In Search of Forgotten Colours

Apr.15 Steve Beimel

World-renowned master textile dyer Sachio Yoshioka is featured in this 18-minute video  about the Art of Natural Dyeing.

Apr.02

Japanese Women Artists You Should Know: Meet Shima Seien

Apr.02 Alice Gordenker

By Alice Gordenker Shima Seien (島成園, 1892–1970) worked as a Nihonga painter at a time when few women in Japan were able to pursue art as a profession. Throughout her career, she struggled against overt discrimination against women artists. This frustration is palpable in her 1918 painting “Untitled” (無題), in which a woman in a…