Exhibition Dates
September 8 - 22, 2011

Opening Reception
Thursday, September 8, 6 - 8 pm



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Japan’s Leading Art College in New York

Onishi Gallery is pleased to present a group exhi­bi­tion of con­tem­po­rary crafts from the Kanazawa Col­lege of Art, Japan from Sep­tem­ber 8 to 22.

Kenji Kuze / Falling Trace 09 / Ceramic / H 20.5 x W 15 x D 8.25 inches / 2009

The Kanazawa Col­lege of Art is the only art school in Japan which offers an aca­d­e­mic major in crafts. As a result, the col­lege has pro­duced a myr­iad of great craft artists with no close rivals in Japan. This pro­duc­tiv­ity is reflected in the num­ber of “Liv­ing National Trea­sures” the col­lege has pro­duced and the college’s influ­ence on Japan­ese craft and design. This exhi­bi­tion con­sists of two parts: “Wa-Ring” and “Japan­ese Con­tem­po­rary Crafts by Three Great Masters”.

A key part of the show, the “Wa-Ring” exhibit fea­tures art using ring-shaped wooden objects and Kanazawa City’s tra­di­tional indus­trial prod­uct, gold leaf. Each par­tic­i­pant is given free reign over his or her work. The “Wa-Ring” exhibit was cre­ated by 59 grad­u­ates and 11 cur­rent stu­dents from the Kanazawa Col­lege of Art.

In Kanazawa City, the tra­di­tional arts such as gold leaf, ceramic, lac­quer ware, metal inlay and fab­ric dye­ing have been fos­tered for many cen­turies. In addi­tion to being known as a beau­ti­ful cas­tle town, Kanazawa City has also become well known as a show­case for con­tem­po­rary and mod­ern art since the 21st Cen­tury Museum of Con­tem­po­rary Art, Kanazawa opened in 2004. The city has a unique qual­ity of inte­grat­ing tra­di­tion­al­ism and mod­ernism, mak­ing the city and its artists amongst the most influ­en­tial in Japan.

In another key part of the show, “Japan­ese Con­tem­po­rary Crafts by Three Great Mas­ters”, Liv­ing National Trea­sures Fumio Mae (Chinkin Lac­quer) and Mamoru Nak­a­gawa (Metal Inlay), as well as the direc­tor of the Kanazawa Col­lege of Art, Kenji Kuze (Ceramic), will present art pieces. They are all lead­ing con­tem­po­rary crafts­men of Japan and live in Kanazawa City.

Just after World War II ended, the Kanazawa Col­lege of Art was estab­lished in 1946 with the ded­i­ca­tion of Kanazawa cit­i­zens, who yearned to con­tribute to the peace of mankind through the cre­ation of beauty. Among its grad­u­ates are many pio­neers of tra­di­tional art as well as a vari­ety of tal­ented indi­vid­u­als in the areas of pure art and designer indus­tries. The dig­i­tal art­work of Shigeru Miyamoto — the father of the Nin­tendo game soft­ware “Super Mario” — and Mamoru Hosoda — the direc­tor of the ani­mated movie “Sum­mer Wars” — is lauded around the world.

A total of 1300 par­tic­i­pants, con­sist­ing mainly of grad­u­ates of the uni­ver­sity as well as cur­rent stu­dents, have orga­nized the grand art exhi­bi­tion to be simul­ta­ne­ously held in three cities: Tokyo Ginza, Kanazawa and New York. In total, there are 149 loca­tions, with 163 exhi­bi­tions, begin­ning with an exhibit in Tokyo Ginza in 2002, and con­tin­u­ing in 2004 and 2007. Now, in 2011, this show will be the fourth time such an exhibit has been held.

Spon­sor:
Bureau of Art Exhi­bi­tion 2011
Cospon­sor:
Alumni Asso­ci­a­tion of Kanazawa Col­lege of Art
Kanazawa Col­lege of Art
Coop­er­a­tion:
Coop­er­a­tive Asso­ci­a­tion of Gold Leaf Com­merce and Indus­try, Ishikawa Pre­fec­ture
Tatemachi Shop­ping Street Pro­mo­tion Association
Aid:
Shibuya Cul­ture & Sports Pro­mot­ing Foundation
Sup­port:
The City of Kanazawa
The Hokkoku Bank, Ltd.
The Hokuriku Bank, Ltd.
The Hokkoku Shim­bun
TV Kanazawa

Mamoru Nakagawa / Flower Vase Spring Tide Flows / Cast alloy of copper, silver and tin with inlay of copper, silver and gold / H 18 x W 38 x D 17 inches / 2002

“WA-RING”

Grad­u­ates (59)

  1. Hideo Kunieda
  2. Takashi Saku­miya
  3. Rumiko Nanao
  4. Ikue Shi­rakawa
  5. Yutaka Mitani
  6. Noriko Mitani
  7. Kazunori Fujii
  8. Kunio Boda
  9. Michiko Motoya
  10. Fumio Mae
  11. Tok­isuke Yoshida
  12. Hisashi Shibuya
  13. Kenji Kuze
  14. Junichi Kuro­sawa
  15. Jun Tabo­hashi
  16. Emiko Shima
  17. Ai Ikeda
  18. Ayako Hirone
  19. Masaaki Osaki
  20. Hiroko Kaneda
  21. Akira Oda­giri
  22. Mikio Shina
  23. Kazuko Saito
  24. Sayako Ueda
  25. Tat­sumi Sakai
  26. Miyoko Sug­iura
  27. Akio Nishikawa
  28. Shinya Kumazaki
  29. Yu Kumazak
  30. Kouji Tsub­one
  31. Satoshi Uchida
  32. Mieko Kita­mura
  33. Tat­suhiko Inoue
  34. Akemi Tokuda
  35. Tat­suo Kondo
  36. Etsuko Ikeno
  37. Hisako Oba
  38. Yoshimi Oba
  39. Chiga Hori­uchi
  40. Mune­haru Tokura
  41. Eiji Nenoki
  42. Junichi Ozawa
  43. Yasuhiro Sumii
  44. Hikari Ter­ada
  45. Keiko Taji
  46. Masae Tanaka
  47. Makoto Seo
  48. Yuko Hidaka
  49. Hiromi Kida
  50. Yoriko Yamada
  51. Kat­suyasu Takagaki
  52. Rimi Tak­a­gaki
  53. Mariko Awa
  54. Yutaka Iio
  55. Ryo Hayashi
  56. Mamoru Nak­a­gawa
  57. Kazuka Asakura
  58. Toshiya Tsu­runo
  59. Mut­sumi Matsuoka

Cur­rent stu­dents (11)

  1. Takayuki Hagiya
  2. Susumu Akou
  3. Masanori Harada
  4. Taiki Ishida
  5. Tat­suya Fukunaga
  6. Yuk­i­hisa Ito
  7. Kouga Shimura
  8. Yu Gotou
  9. Eko Nakashinden
  10. Takahiro Maeno
  11. Taisuke Mizuno


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