The Nagasawa 14 Artists
Coordinated by Nel Pak and Michael Reed
Colophon by Cindi Ettinger (USA): wood relief print and letterpress
This exhibition is also held at Gallery Ami Kanoko, in Osaka, and will include works by Katie Baldwin (USA), Jacomijn den Engelsen (Netherlands), Haruka Furusaka (Japan), Henrik Hey (Netherlands), Daniel Heyman (USA), Dariusz Kaca (Poland), Yoonmi Nam (USA), Nel Pak (Netherlands), Eva Pietzcker (Germany), Michael Reed (New Zealand), Hiroki Satake (Japan), April Vollmer (USA), Alexander Wozniak (Poland), Miriam Zegrer (Germany)
Mokuhanga prints by the Nagasawa 14, an international group of artists who are primarily past participants in Nagasawa artist in residence programme set up by CFSHE (Center for the Science of Human Endeavour) to teach the skills of Japanese watercolor woodblock printing to modern artists. For sixteen years the group has kept in touch through exhibitions and conferences, exchanging information and meeting periodically. This is their fourth collaborative portfolio, after A Time and a Place, Tallinn, 2007; Surimono International: Woodblock and Poetry, Bristol, 2009; and Snow, Tokyo, 2014.
NOIR is the French word for ‘black’/ 黒. KURO is the Japanese word for ‘black’ in Roman type. The theme ‘black’ is inspired by the theme of the Nara 4th International Mokuhanga Conference in 2021, entitled Sumi-Fusion. Ranging from imagination to reality, 黒/Noir allows the artists to consider the diversity of sumi tones, delicate tints to deep and shining black (黒黒 / deep black). Or, to infuse and blend black with colour, work on a black surface, or work with black subject matter and symbolism.