Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Hayakawa Ayunosuke (大板ヲ持) holding back a torrent of water, Series: Ten Warriors of Amago (Amago jû shi-den, 厄子十士傳), 1854, ôban (36.3 x 25 cm)

LA Fine Print Fair – Part of Rare Books LA
Saturday, February 3 (10am-6pm) and Sunday, February 4 (11am-4pm)
Pasadena Convention Center
300 East Green Street, Pasadena, CA

Egenolf Gallery will participating in the LA Fine Print Fair, part of Rare Books LA, with another fine selection of original Japanese prints. They will also bring works that are not yet posted on their website, so be sure to visit their curated collection of ukiyo-e and shin hanga to see these in person.

Rare Books LA welcomes booksellers and bibliophiles from around the world to share their love of books, fine prints, maps and ephemera. They will also be hosting a series of talks at the event, all included with the price of admission.

To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.

Monden Yuichi, Wave Song, 2011, madake & nemagari bamboo, rattan, 21 x 25.5 x 12.75 in.; Deanne Kroll, Tibetan Bowls Music 2, 2024, ink on rice paper on wood, cold wax, 16x 23 in.

From Bamboo to Brush
January 26 – February 29, 2024
Opening Reception: Friday, January 26, 5–7pm

From Bamboo to Brush is a curatorial vignette that showcases the synergy between Japanese bamboo art from TAI Modern’s collection and contemporary Zen ink brush painting by artist Deanne Kroll of Raven Brushworks. The exhibit explores the shared principles of purpose, movement and expression, creating a compelling connection between these two diverse art forms.

Inspired by the nurturing ways of the raven, artist Deanne Kroll established Raven Brushworks in Santa Fe as a platform for her contemplative creative practice. “Painting has the potential to allow for deeper spiritual connection. When I paint, I invite my mind to unlearn what it knows. This process brings me into a state of inner peace, and this allows me to feel the essence of my subject.”

The exhibition features ink paintings by Deanne Kroll alongside Japanese bamboo art by renowned artists like Honma Hideaki, Kawano Shoko, Monden Yuichi, Nakamura Tomonori, Sugiura Noriyoshi, Oki Toshie, Shono Tokuzo, Watanabe Chiaki and Japanese Living National Treasure, Fujitsuka Shosei.

Be sure to visit for a transformative exploration of artistic expression, cultural fusion and shared spiritual experience.

To learn more, click here.

Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 芳年 (1839-1892), Flute Player Triptych 明治十五壬午季秋絵画共進会出品画藤原保昌月下弄笛図応需, 1883, ôban triptych each sheet approx 37.5 x 25.5 cm (76.5 cm)

Portland Fine Print Fair
Benefit Preview: Friday, January 26 (6-9pm)
Saturday, January 27 (10am-6pm) and Sunday, January 28 (11am-5pm)
Portland Art Museum
1219 SW Park Ave, Portland

Egenolf Gallery will be participating in this weekend’s Portland Fine Print Fair with a highly curated selection of original Japanese prints. They will also be showing works that are not yet posted on their website, so be sure to stop by to view their fine collection of ukiyo-e and shin hanga prints.

The Portland Fine Print Fair, now in its 11th year in the historic Fields Ballroom, features 14 top dealers from across North America and Europe and is the largest and most comprehensive print fair on the West Coast. Prints from Old Masters to contemporary emerging artists will be on sale and excellent works can be found in all price ranges. Admission to the fair, talks and tours are free and open to the public.

To learn more, click here.

Fu Qiumeng Fine Art
Zhang Xiaoli Artist Talk and Demonstration
Saturday, January 27, 2024
Artist Talk: 11am-12pm
Demonstration: 2:30-3:30pm
Live In-Person and Livestream Event

Join Fu Qiumeng Fine Art this Saturday for a special artist talk and painting demonstration by contemporary painter Zhang Xiaoli, whose exhibition Whimsical Maze is currently on view through February 3rd.

This unique event explores the Eastern tradition of Gongbi brushwork, elegant gardens and the symbolic language found in the Manual of the Mustard Seed Garden, as well as in Zhang Xiaoli’s work. Featuring works on silk and paper, the event offers a dive into a parallel world of ethereal wonders, the creative process and the history of Landscape painting.

Starting at 11:00am, Zhang Xiaoli will introduce the historical development of Green and Blue Landscapes 青绿山水, revisit classic masterpieces such as Gu Kaizhi’s The Nymph of the Luo River 《洛神赋图》卷 and Wang Ximeng’s A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains 《千里江山图》卷 and present her Lego Landscape series. She will also uncover Taoist influences, Chinese Feng-Shui and mystical elements in her work, as well as offer insights into the materials and techniques of the Gongbi painting method. This event is free and open to the public.

Then at 2:30pm, the artist will perform a live demonstration of traditional Chinese Green and Blue Landscape techniques, along with her signature Lego Mountain and Stone techniques. Participants will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the serene beauty of Gongbi painting. This hands-on session encourages attendees to explore and experiment with ink art mediums under the guidance of Zhang Xiaoli. This exclusive event is ticketed at $12 and limited to 18 people.

To learn more and sign up, click here.

Melissa Shook (1939-2020), Untitled (Cape Cod, Massachusetts), ca. 1971, gelatin silver print, 7 x 7 in. (17.8 x 17.8 cm)

MIYAKO YOSHINAGA
Melissa Shook: Krissy’s Present
Closing Saturday, January 20, 2024
24 East 64th Street

Closing tomorrow, Krissy’s Present features 30 black-and-white photographs made between 1965 and 1983 by the late American artist Melissa Shook (1939-2020).

In the mid-1960s Shook, a single mother, began photographing her mixed-race infant daughter Kristina – “Krissy.” Krissy recalls she could think of no other way to have grown up with her mother, holding the camera and photographing her all the time. “My earliest memories are of being photographed with my friends on the Lower East Side of Manhattan—running naked on the street or playing games in my friends’ apartments. My mother Melissa chasing after us—not interrupting us –clicking away with her camera, an extension of her.”

Shook later realized that taking her daughter’s images constantly was an obsession to make up for her lost childhood, given that her mother died when she was twelve, and she had amnesia regarding her mother and her entire childhood. Although photographing family members had been a universal practice, few photographers before Shook explored the depth and complexity of motherhood and childhood as artistic subjects from the photographer’s firsthand experience. From an infant girl with curly hair playing with toys to a young woman wearing a dressy veiled hat, Krissy was meticulously recorded growing over time, finally becoming independent and leaving her mother’s care and protection.

To learn more, click here.

The Korea Society
Jian Yoo Iridescent Hue
January 25 – April 18, 2024
Opening Reception: March 14, 2024, 5-7pm

Working in the precise and fine medium of mother of pearl — jagae in Korean – Jian Yoo’s iridescent art bridges historical and contemporary, nature and artificial, arts and crafts. Made of thousands of mother-of-pearl pieces layered in intricate patterns, Yoo’s art respectfully acknowledges the long tradition of master craft workers while reinventing the genre with distinctively modern sensibilities.

Jian Yoo is a contemporary mother-of-pearl artist residing and working between Korea and the United States. While studying Interior Design at Pratt Institute of New York, Yoo chose mother-of-pearl—or jagae —as her medium, inspired by her father, a master of najeonchilgi or Korean nacre lacquerware who ran his own studio throughout her childhood. Returning to Korea in 2013, Yoo embarked on pioneering the modern mother-of-pearl art while establishing her own studio, ARIJIAN.

Yoo designed the trophy for the first Seoul Smart City Prize, and her artwork was chosen as the Presidential State Gift for the South Korea-US Summit of 2023 and 44 other heads of state and foreign dignitaries. She held a solo exhibition at the Andaz Hotel Gangnam in Seoul, Lotte Hotel Seoul, Culture Object in New York, and was featured in exhibitions at, among others, Downtown Design Dubai, UNESCO Headquarter in Paris, and National Folk Museum of Korea, which also acquired her artwork. Jian Yoo has also collaborated with brands such as Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, Cartier, Blancpain, Girogetti, and many others.

Be sure to also mark your calendars for the Opening Reception on March 14 from 5-7pm at the start of Asia Week New York!

Please note the the Korea Society Gallery is open only by appointment. The appointment must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled visit.

To learn more and make an appointment, click here.

Suzuki Harunobu, Searching for Fireflies, 1768, Clarence Buckingham Collection

Art Institute Chicago
By the Light of the Moon: Nighttime in Japanese Prints
January 20 – April 14, 2024

Whether as a darkened backdrop for action-packed figural scenes or as a dominant presence over unpeopled landscapes, Japanese printmakers have represented nighttime in various ways over the past several centuries.

In the earliest prints shown in this exhibition opening this Saturday, figures are the main focus of each image and darkness simply sets the stage. This is true for the mid- to late 18th-century works of Okumura Masanobu and Suzuki Harunobu, where a solid curtain of black appears behind each dramatic scene. By the 19th century, however, landscape prints were often dominated by the night sky—with or without a moon—and townspeople in urban settings or travelers in rural scenes were less prominent.

Over time, some artists became more adventurous and began to depict different seasons and moments during the day. In the prints by Utagawa Hiroshige featured here, he has set each scene at a specific phase of the night, such as twilight or midnight, indicated by the hues of the sky. By the 20th century, artists could express the various moods associated with nighttime by the way they represented how shadows were cast, the brightness of stars, the reflections of the moon on vast oceans or small puddles, and the isolation of lonely travelers. In particular, Kawase Hasui cleverly incorporated small amounts of light into otherwise dark scenes to produce some of the most haunting images in the history of Japanese prints.

To learn more, click here.

Japan Society
Fluxfilms: An Evening of Experimental Shorts with Jeffrey Perkins and Midori Yoshimoto
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
7:00 pm
Ticketed In-Person Event

Presented in collaboration with Japan Society Gallery’s current exhibition, Out of Bounds: Japanese Women Artists in Fluxus, on display until this Sunday, the 21st, a rare evening of films from the 1960s Fluxus movement will be screened this Wednesday evening followed by a conversation with Fluxus filmmaker Jeffrey Perkins and Out of Bounds guest curator Midori Yoshimoto.

Spanning from the absurd to the avant garde, and ranging from 10 seconds to 10 minutes in length, Fluxus’ films are unique experimental ephemera created by many of the key global voices instrumental to the Fluxus revolution, with filmmakers including Nam June Paik, George Maciunas and Yoko Ono.

Join them in celebrating a radical artistic spirit that still resonates 60 years later and enjoy free admission to the exhibit before the screening.

To learn more and purchase tickets, click here.

B.S.P.I./Getty Images; Courtesy Asia Society

From Meiji to Now: The Making of Modern Japan
Wednesday, January 17, 6:30-8pm
Asia Society
725 Park Avenue, NYC

In associated with Asia Society’s recent exhibition, Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan, which reevaluated a seminal era of turmoil, creativity, and transformation in Japan spanning the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries, this in-person discussion will focus on the significance of the Meiji Restoration and the transformations in politics, society, and culture Japan experienced during this time and their relevance to the contemporary era. The talk will further examine the parallels and continuity between the two periods of transformation and explore their implications for the region as well as the wider world.

Opening remarks will be be made by Dr. Yasufumi Nakamori, Director of Asia Society Museum and Vice President of Arts and Culture.

Speakers will include Dr. Chelsea Foxwell, Associate Professor of Art History, East Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the College, and Director, Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago; Dr. Carol Gluck, George Sansom Professor Emerita of History at Columbia University; Dr. Takako Hikotani, senior fellow with the Asia Society Policy Institute in Tokyo; and Dr. Paul Sheard, economist and author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller The Power of Money.

To learn more and purchase your tickets, click here.