Oki Toshie (born 1976), Rapids, 2017, madake bamboo, rattan, 3.5 x 21 x 13 in.

As is the case with ink, clay, lacquer, and silk, bamboo is a material found naturally in Japan but many of the ways of working with it came from abroad. Yet, over the centuries, Japanese artists and artisans developed these materials into forms of art that are not only distinctively Japanese but are among the finest of their kind in the world. Margo Thoma, Director of TAI Modern and one of the foremost dealers in this field, is devoted to introducing and attracting as many people as possible to the wonderful world of Japanese bamboo art.

Thoma has a long-established interest in East Asian art and received a BA in art history from Stanford University, where she not only focused on East Asian cinema but took Japanese art history classes. When she moved to Santa Fe in 2006, she founded the contemporary art gallery Eight Modern. In 2014, these interests came together when she purchased TAI Gallery, founded by Robert Coffland, a highly regarded expert in Japanese bamboo art, and merged the two establishments into TAI Modern. Since then, Thoma and her staff have continued to present several exhibitions of Japanese bamboo art annually, including one in New York during March Asia Week, as well as offering shows of Western contemporary art.

L-R: Margo Thoma delivering a speech at the awards ceremony of the national Wood and Bamboo Association, Tokyo, May 7, 2019; Fujitsuka Shosei giving a demonstration at TAI Modern, July 27, 2014; TAI Modern gallery installation of Torii Ippo exhibition, June 25, 2021

To organize and present their exhibitions, Thoma and TAI Modern’s Director of Japanese Art Koichiro Okada typically make two or three trips to Japan each year to meet with bamboo artists. Thoma commented that because the compositions can take many months to complete, an exhibition often requires years of advance planning. Another important part of TAI Modern and Thoma’s activities are producing and participating in a variety of educational endeavors to introduce bamboo art to more people and then deepen their understanding. Among the gallery’s most popular programs are artist’s demonstrations, short and informative focused presentations on You Tube, and lectures/panel discussions. A particularly informative program was the recent webinar held on April 12th and organized by the Portland Japanese Garden with their Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art, and Education Aki Nakanishi, collector Peter Shinbach, and Thoma. This program, entitled Art of Vitality: Peter Shinbach Bamboo Art Collection and now available on YouTube, included Thoma’s very informative survey of the use of bamboo in Japanese culture, description of the different regional types of bamboo, and a summary of Japanese contemporary bamboo art (to watch the video, click here).

TAI Modern sells the work of numerous Japanese bamboo artists, including historical individuals, the two current Living National Treasures who work in bamboo Katushiro Soho and Fujimura Noboru, and several women artists. Thoma pointed out that while some artists continue to produce traditional vessels, especially vases and offering trays, and may expect their creations to be used in a functional capacity, others fashion art sculptures. While, overall, there are more active collectors of Japanese bamboo art outside Japan than in the art’s home country, this is particularly true for bamboo sculptures. A large and impressive example is Meoto Iwa (The Wedded Rocks), exhibited by TAI Modern in both their New York and Santa Fe exhibitions of Yufu Shohaku’s art, which was also the artist’s first solo show in the U.S. Here the artist recreated in bamboo two actual sacred rocks in Japan, which are tied together with a rope to represent the union between Izanagi and Izanami, the two central deities in Japan’s creation myth. The artist spent much of 2020 working on this sculptural homage to connection and new beginnings.

Yufu Shohaku (born 1941), Meoto Iwa (The Wedded Rocks), 2020, madake bamboo, bamboo branches, shuro rope, 24 x 61 x 59 in.

TAI Modern’s next exhibition, which opens on June 24th, is similarly innovative in that it will be the first solo exhibition in the U.S. for Oki Toshie, one of the few Japanese women artists working in bamboo. As they do with other exhibitions, TAI Modern’s gallery and website (click here) will offer viewers abundant text, images, and programs to enhance their experience. It is fortunate that TAI Modern makes it possible for many people to enjoy the innovative work of artists such as Oki Toshie, who is “… proud to say that I put my heart and soul into each piece I create.”

Wang Mansheng (born 1962), Deep in the Mountains Searching for Ancient Trees No. 5, 2014,
ink on paper, 71 x 38.5 in.

Moonlight on Stones | Wang Mansheng 王满晟
Fu Qiumeng Fine Art
May 20-July 23, 2022

Fu Qiumeng will host two special in-person programs to accompany the current exhibition.

Meet the Artist
Saturday, June 4, 12-2pm
Artist Wang Mansheng will lead a tour through the current exhibition of 19 paintings selected from his Night Mountain and Ancient Trees series. Wang will describe his artistic practice and consider philosophical approaches in Chinese landscape painting history. This exhibition contains a relationship between text and image, which is a traditional feature, that has been enacted in a novel way through the artist’s sensitivity and intellectual interests. The Ancient Trees collection represents his consideration of longevity and form. In intimate contact with the ecosystem of the Hudson River Valley, he makes brushes and ink out of local organic materials to paint objects found in the area while demonstrating his reflections on lines, shape, and texture.

Scholar's Lecture: Poetic Construction of Multiple Times in Tang Poetry 
Friday, June 10, 6-8pm
In this Scholar's Lecture, Dr. Chao Ling, curator of the exhibition, will use the Tang poet Li Shen's (772–846) 李紳 Twenty Poems on the New Tower 新樓詩二十首 as an example to discuss some linguistic and poetic issues. First, how do Chinese poets, responding to the challenge of a syntactically tenseless Chinese language, articulate temporal concepts—such as the sense of temporality, grammatical aspect, and instant in time? Also, why does poetry, which is primarily about spatial constructs (in particular high towers), often yield to a reflection on time?

Dr. Chao Ling (born 1987) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong. Ling primarily researches classical Chinese poetry and art history, with a special focus on the medieval period. He also works on literary theory and philosophical investigations of the relationship between text and image. Ling holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures from Yale University (2019) and a B.A. in Chinese Languages and Literatures from Peking University (2009).

Read more and register, click here.

For more information about the exhibition Cloud Wanderings of Wang Mansheng at the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden, click here.

Bertha Lum (1869-1954), Road to the Forest at Nikko, woodblock print, 13 x 7 3/4 in.

Scholten Japanese Art, which opened in New York in 2000 and has presented more than fifty exhibitions of fine Japanese prints, paintings, and works of art, has never hesitated to explore new artistic avenues to bring the best and most interesting artworks to their collectors and visitors. In the past several years, Rene Scholten and Katherine Martin, President and Director of the gallery, respectively, have expanded the parameters of what is considered Japanese prints and paintings. Namely, their exhibitions have included art by non-Japanese artists influenced by the techniques and imagery that characterizes Japanese traditional visual culture, as well as the impact of Western influences on Japanese artists. The former theme has been at the heart of Scholten’s most recent and upcoming exhibitions.

The gallery described their spring exhibition, Influencers: Japonisme and Modern Japan as “an exploration of the influence of Japanese art on Western art and the development of modern international art modes such as art nouveau and art deco.” Included were 102 woodblock prints and paintings by important artists—male and female—from France, Austria, Germany, Britain, and the United States, as well as from Japan. (Read and see more about this exhibition, click here.)  Katherine Martin, who has directed the gallery since 1999, after several years as specialist of Japanese art at Sotheby’s, commented that she has long been fascinated by exchanges between artists of different cultures, and that even though artistic interactions between Japan and the West are well explored, new ones are always a “revelation.” Martin pointed to a particularly striking example. . . the clear similarity between a print by Utagawa Hiroshige and a painting by James Whistler, who was greatly influenced by the Japanese master, although he never traveled to the country. Especially interesting is that early modern Japanese printmakers were in turn much taken with impressionist artists such as Whistler, as can be seen in a print made by Kobayashi Eijiro.

L-R: Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Full Moon Over Canal, with Bridge and Huge Stacks of Bamboo along the Bank, woodblock print, circa 1857, Scholten Japanese Art; James Whistler (1834-1903), Nocturne: Blue and Gold-Old Battersea Bridge, circa 1972-5, oil on canvas, Tate Britain (NO1959); Kobayashi Eijiro (1870-1946), Night Scenes: High Bridge by Night, ca. 1910-20s, Scholten Japanese Art

The Influencers exhibition emphasized an exploration of works by non-Japanese artists who employed the woodblock print-making process. Not only were these artists often self-taught, figuring out on their own how their Japanese predecessors achieved various visual effects, but they were often obliged to undertake all aspects of the printmaking process themselves, as they did not have available to them the numerous craftsmen with whom Japanese artists could collaborate. The works of these artists, such as Emil Orlik, B.J.O. Nordfeldt, John Edgar Platt, and Bertha Lum, in turn played a role in reviving interest in woodblock printmaking in Japan, known as the shin-hanga (“new prints”) movement of the early 20th century.

Martin observed that exhibitions at Scholten are a collaboration between herself and Rene Scholten and often “percolate” for years, as additions to the roster are acquired and new artists discovered. Martin was surprised and pleased with the very positive response to Influencers, both by experienced print collectors and several new enthusiasts and that works by the non-Japanese artists sold very quickly.

L-R: Katherine Martin, Rene and Margriet Scholten, 2010

Scholten’s upcoming exhibition, NOH: More Drama, which opens on June 16th, presents paintings, drawings and prints of Japanese theatrical subjects by Paul Binnie. (For more information about this exhibition, click here and watch these pages.) This is the gallery’s fourth solo exhibition of work by this artist, who was born in Scotland in 1967 and spent several years in Japan as an apprentice to learn traditional woodblock printing techniques. Binnie’s use of both Japanese and Western artistic practices to produce images that draw on imagery from many sources is the ongoing embodiment of Scholten gallery’s keen interest in following unexpected developments within the traditions of Japanese art and woodblock printmaking.

Yufu Shohaku (born 1941), Meoto Iwa (The Wedded Rocks), 2020, madake bamboo, rattan, branches, shuro rope, 24 x 61 x 59 in.

Yufu Shohaku, TAI Modern
Concludes May 31, 2022

TAI Modern presents Japanese bamboo artist Yufu Shohaku’s first solo exhibition outside of Japan. This exhibition was initially shown in New York, and has recently travelled to Santa Fe, giving New Mexico art fans the opportunity to view these powerful baskets and sculptures in person.

Yufu Shohaku (born 1941) is not only a master bamboo artist, but also a cultured man with a meticulous mind, a leader in his community, a certified master flower arranger, and head of a local Shigin (chanted poetry) group. He is known for his robust and energetic rough-plaited baskets. Though Yufu’s works have sculptural presence, his belief is that beauty and functionality are at the core of his art. After completing a basket, he arranges flowers in it to determine whether he was successful in its execution. “When I make flower baskets, I always consider the size and balance of the baskets, as well as the type of flowers to be arranged in them,” Yufu explains. “For me, baskets and flowers are inseparable, and I get my inspiration from natural forms such as the earth and cliffs. I try to give my works an organic look, as if they are a part of nature.”

Read more, including the online catalogue, click here

Elaine Ildan Choi, Here and Now, Korean Cultural Center
Now through May 31st

The Korean Cultural Center New York sheds light on the life and art of artist Elaine Ildan Choi (born 1936) in a special documentary and online exhibition that features not only her selected artworks, but the story of her turbulent life and fierce spirit that has remained a constant thread throughout. The video was unveiled on March 8th, 2022 to commemorate International Women’s Day and also as a part of Asia Week New York 2022.

The mini documentary follows the artist's life spanning more than 80 years as she navigates through the tumultuous times from the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and as she builds her life around the world starting from Seoul, Korea to Paris, Beijing, and finally to New York.

In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPI), the Korean Cultural Center invites viewers to leave comments after watching Elaine Ildan Choi, Here and Now, which currently has over 40k views on YouTube since its premiered back in March, before the end of the day on May 31st. The artist Elaine Ildan Choi will select a total of 10 comments from participants, and the selected 10 will receive a special prize, prepared by the artist and the center.

For more information, including details and eligibility about this special online program, as well as for other related programs, please visit the Korean Cultural Center New York’s website, click here.