UPCOMING ASIA WEEK NEW YORK EXHIBITION
From Timber to Tiger: the Many Bamboos of Japanese Bamboo Art
March 13 – 21, 2025
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 13, 5-8pm
Exhibiting at: Colnaghi, 23 East 67th Street, 4th Floor
Asia Week Hours: 10am-6pm, daily (otherwise by appointment)
We are excited to return to this year’s Asia Week New York to exhibit From Timber to Tiger: The Many Bamboos of Japanese Bamboo Art. This exhibition, held at Colnaghi New York, showcases important historic and contemporary works with a particular emphasis on unusual materials, ranging from rare bamboo species to lotus root to Bakelite.
Highlighted in this show are pieces from master Yamamoto Chikuryusai II, a member of one of the most important bamboo lineages in Osaka. “Flower Container” (1938) blends the traditional shapes of sencha tea ceremony ikebana baskets and rattan knotting technique with what was new plastics technology at the time: Bakelite, a thermosetting resin that could be molded into any shape.
We are also proud to highlight pieces from modern master Tanabe Chikuunsai IV. “Enso” (2020) uses tiger bamboo, a particularly hardy bamboo spotted with green and brown marks that grows only on a single mountain in Kochi. Conversely, “Stand” (2024) employs a new technique pioneered by Tanabe, wherein he collects bamboo felled from previous seasons. While pliable, it is also incredibly fragile, and it’s that unpredictability that grounds the tangle of hobi and black bamboo.
As the world’s premier gallery for Japanese bamboo art, we welcome this opportunity to provide education and guidance to established collectors and first-time viewers alike.
We look forward to seeing you soon in New York!
To learn more, click here.
About the Gallery
TAI Gallery was created by Robert T. Coffland, a leading expert in Japanese bamboo arts in the West, who began sourcing works from contemporary masters in Japan. The gallery moved from the founder’s home to a gallery space on Canyon Road, then to its current location in the Santa Fe Railyard in 2006.
Margo Thoma purchased the gallery in 2014 and merged it with her contemporary American art gallery, Eight Modern. Rebranded as TAI Modern, Thoma and renowned bamboo expert, Koichiro Okada, continue Coffland’s mission of building museum-quality collections.
Thoma supports and promotes bamboo art in the West by serving as an advisor to Western collectors and institutions, facilitating public demonstrations, and curating bamboo art exhibitions. She is a tireless collaborator and ally with and for senior artists across Japan, and sponsors aspiring bamboo artists to participate in national competitions. She has written essays for exhibition catalogs both in the U.S. and Japan and is a frequent public speaker on bamboo art.
Works by TAI Modern artists have been placed in some of the country’s most prestigious institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Mint Museum of North Carolina; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Denver Art Museum; Museum of Art and Design; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.