NEW EXHIBITION
Curatorial Vignette: Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My!
March 28 – April 26, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, March 28, 5-7pm
We are pleased to present Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My!, a curatorial vignette featuring the shapeshifting Japanese bamboo art of Kawashima Shigeo from our collection, contemporary pop art paintings of Japanese monsters in their plastic worlds by Joel Nakamura, and Zen ink brush paintings of supernatural creatures and yōkai by Barbara Riley.
Although formal, scholarly research of yōkai is in its infancy (there isn’t even a fixed definition of what the term means: for our purposes, somewhere between a demon and a monster—the creatures of bedtime and fairytale stories), we invited local New Mexican artists Joel Nakamura and Barbara Riley to showcase their interpretation of yōkai culture alongside the whisper-thin abstract bamboo works of Kawashima Shigeo.
Kawashima Shigeo admits that, when he was a young man, he wanted to “Live in a remote place like a mountain hermit.” But it wasn’t until he was twenty-seven years old that bamboo came into his life as an artistic expression. He generally doesn’t weave with it, as is the traditional technique, but allows it to find form through tying knots with rattan to hold the tangles into a form. The result is a feral, light, expressionistic take on contemporary Japanese bamboo sculpture.
Joel Nakamura is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with myths and legends within a blend of folk art and neo-primitive painting techniques. In addition to being an accomplished children’s book writer and illustrator, he has taken commissions from Time Magazine, US News & World Report, and the Los Angeles Times.
Barbara Riley worked as a freelance writer and editor for over half her life but spent time throughout working in a more formal sphere to copy paintings from hundreds of books in her library—from Korean Modernism, classical Chinese landscapes, to Japanese Zenga. This allowed her to find space for expression and originality in the traditional art of sumi-e ink painting.
Bringing painting together with sculptural forms, Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My! explores the relationship between mythology and technique. It also promises to be a raucous time, containing the traditional Japanese Hyakki Yagyō (night procession of one hundred demons) parading on the walls of the gallery! Join us for the opening on Friday, March 28 from 5-7pm!
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PAST 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: 11am-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 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.