Installation view, Curatorial Vignette: Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My!

Curatorial Vignette: Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My!
Closing Saturday, April 26, 2025
1601 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe, NM

These are the final days to catch Demons & Monsters at TAI… Oh My! at TAI Modern before it closes on April 26! This curatorial vignette features 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.

Though formal study of yōkai is still emerging (there’s not even a fixed definition for the term, which hovers somewhere between demon and monster), 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. Expect a wild, immersive experience—complete with a raucous parade of traditional Japanese yokai in the form of Hyakki Yagyō (the night procession of one hundred demons) marching right across the gallery walls. Don’t miss it!

To learn more, click here.