Onishi Gallery is proud to present Tomoko Kagami in a solo show, SOUL. Tomoko Kagami is a young Japanese calligrapher who lives and works in Tokushima prefecture in Japan. She began practicing calligraphy at the age of 8 and has continued to work in the medium for seventeen years. A graduate of Shikoku University’s Department of Calligraphic Culture, one of the few universities in Japan with a department specializing in calligraphy study, she learned traditional and modern calligraphy techniques through intensive courses there.
Kagami has an abiding interest in presenting her calligraphy as art. Its visual aspect, her artistic process, and the concepts behind calligraphy are all important to her. Together, they form the core of her artistic focus.
With a deep interest in expressing calligraphy in broad, international interpretations, Kagami moved to New York to live and study for three years following her graduation from Shikoku University. During her stay in New York, she was selected to be in the group show “Young Japanese Calligraphers” held at the Onishi Gallery in 2007. Her pieces garnered praise and were among those sold at the exhibit.
Kagami continues to work as a calligrapher in and outside of Japan. In SOUL, she exhibits 19 pieces, including “Soul,” a work demonstrating the fullness of life’s vital energy, and “Encounter,” which explores her gratitude towards the people she has met in her life. All of her pieces are expressed with strong and bright brush strokes on black and white surfaces. She seeks and finds both inspiration and power from every Chinese character that she places onto paper, and infuses her art-making process with the meaning of each character drawn onto white space.