(Top): Kawashima Shigeo, Dance of Shrine Maiden, 2024, madake bamboo, lacquer, 14.5 x 14.75 x 13.5 in.; (Bottom): Barbara Riley, Earth’s Roar, sumi-e ink on paper, 13.25 x 26.25 in.
Curatorial Vignette: Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My!
March 28 – April 26, 2025
Opening Reception: Friday, March 28, 5-7pm
1601 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM
TAI Modern is pleased to present Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My!, a curatorial vignette featuring the shapeshifting Japanese bamboo art of Kawashima Shigeo from the gallery’s 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 their purposes, somewhere between a demon and a monster—the creatures of bedtime and fairytale stories), TAI Modern invites 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!
To learn more, click here.