Hiromi Mizugai Moneyhun, UKIYO Floating World, papercut

Paper Thin & Shadow Deep, Appleton Museum of Art
December 3, 2022-June 18, 2023

This new exhibition at the Appleton Museum of Art in Ocala Florida features paper-cut artist Hiromi Mizugai Moneyhun, who moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 2004 from her hometown of Kyoto, Japan. Her three-dimensional cut paper pieces are the result of a multistep process which produces art that is at once amusingly lighthearted and startlingly alive.

With no formal art training, she has evolved a unique, homegrown artistic voice that combines traditional Japanese visual art forms with the super-modernity that is now found in all of Japan’s biggest cities.

Her most significant early influence was ehon, a general term given to Japanese picture books, especially those that featured images taken from original paper cuts by Giro Takihira, who was also known as a woodblock print artist. As with woodblock prints, Hiromi’s paper sculptures are the result of a multistep process. Her pieces invite the viewer in; indeed, one feels compelled to reach out and touch the art. Like the works of all the great masters, Hiromi’s pieces are best appreciated when viewed in person. Her work has appeared numerous times in northeast Florida in group and solo shows, New York City, London, and the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas.

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