Celebrating Asian Art

Heated Colors, Hammered Forms:
Female Metal Artists of Japan

Asia Week Hours:
September 14–17: 10am–5pm;
September 18–October 4: by appointment in-person or Zoom
Special preview, September 14, 2022, 6-8pm in collaboration with A Collection of High-End Italian Clothing by Giusto Senza Regole
696 Madison Ave, 2nd Floor

Onishi Gallery (521 W. 26th Street) is proud to feature the best of Japanese metalwork and represents many of its leading contemporary practitioners, including nine who have been designated Living National Treasures. Our September exhibition, Heated Colors, Hammered Forms: Female Metal Artists of Japan, turns the spotlight on the contribution made by women to the revival of this demanding art form, highlighting four female artists who are distinct in their personal modes of expression, but united in their embrace and adaptation of traditional methods.

Oshiyama Motoko creates swirling, agitated surfaces by welding together two or more different metals such as silver or shakudō, Japan’s unique blue-black alloy of copper and gold. Otsuki Masako chisels fine angled lines that give her work an eye-catching three-dimensional look, rich in depth and shadow. Hagino Noriko forges and welds her metals in a process that takes almost six months for each piece, exploiting their natural hues to form fluid patterns. Living National Treasure Osumi Yukie shapes her vessel forms through an arduous hammering process, then beats metal leaf into a fine grid incised into their surfaces to fashion designs evocative of wind, waves, and clouds.

As Osumi has written, “metals can substitute the permanent for the fleeting and transitory, conferring eternity on phenomena that would otherwise have a limited lifespan.” We hope that visitors to this exhibition will appreciate the passion, care, and creativity that each of our four artists has devoted to this transformative process.