Installation view, Light and Abundance: Gold in Japanese Art

Light and Abundance: Gold in Japanese Art
Closing Thursday, April 17, 2025
35 N Moore Street

This is the final week of Ippodo Gallery’s captivating exhibition, Light and Abundance: Gold in Japanese Art, before it closes on April 17! Celebrating the immutable beauty of gold, this group show features new works by master artists working in lacquer, metal, Nihonga painting, and ceramics.

The pure material, never to tarnish nor rust, is the object of fascination and admiration for more than a thousand years in Japan. Gold represents divinity, the eternal, and symbolizes spiritual enlightenment since ancient times, serving to cover statues of Buddha, temples like Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto, and the feudal lord Hideyoshi Toyotomi’s famous Gold Tea Room. Under shadows the gold leaf adorned folding byobu screen thrives; “in the darkness, where sunlight never penetrates, gold leaf will pick up a distant glimmer, then suddenly send forth an ethereal glow, a faint golden light like the horizon at sunset” (Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows). ‘Zipangu, the Land of Gold’ as Marco Polo named the archipelago more than five-hundred years ago, reminds how the country was once the foremost global producer of gold, which empowered the development of a distinct Japanese visual culture. While modern minimalist and wabisabi philosophies rise, flamboyance remains a quintessential element of Japanese aesthetics.

Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to experience top emerging Japanese artists in contemporary kogei, for whom gold remains a medium of innovation and virtue.

To learn more, click here.