FUSION OF JAPANESE CALLIGRAPHY AND PAINTING

Rihaku Inoue and Koichi Terai

June 15 - 21, 2016
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 16th, 6-8 PM

In this exhibition, ornately refined contemporary Japanese calligraphy fuses into a visual Japanese setting evoked by lush colors, utilizing each other creativity to take on boundless new forms of expression. The production process begins with the creation of a picture from the appearance of a variety of shapes and colors, thinking of the most appropriate characters based on the image of the picture. The characters are then written carefully on a screen. From time to time, additions to Japanese calligraphy and drawings, such as adding more detail to a drawing on a screen, are made until a single piece is completed. The works feature anything from celestial bodies such as the moon, stars, and the universe, to scenery embodying the four seasons, waterfalls and rivers, rain, snow, and more. Well-known haiku, poems, and sayings, as well as verses from the Manyoshu and Hyakunin Isshu Japanese poetry anthologies are selected to suit the abstract screen, and I illustrate the ideas of these works by incorporating them into the shape of the calligraphic characters. In the future, artists hope to further expand the range of motifs and incorporate modern abstract expressions, opening up an unprecedented field of expression.
Ms. Rihaku Inoue is a calligraphy artist, consultant of the Japan Calligraphy Museum, and a calligraphy professor of the Japan Education Calligraphy Federation. She is also a member of the A.M.S.C (Art Maison Selecting Committee / Spain) and Paje de Los Suenos Foundation (Madrid, Spain).
She expresses herself through art that touches the heart and appeals to the senses. The lives of human beings are precious, and every living moment is beautiful because of how short our lives really are. Inoue thinks that "Sho"(Japanese calligraphy) is an art form brought into existence by a moment's performance within a time period of one instant. In this way, it resembles our lives.
"It is my pleasure that you can feel empathy with the silence a movement through my calligraphy," Inoue said. Recently fewer people have an appreciation for shodo and that is a serious concern of Inoue. "It is my duty to introduce Sho to the world and at the same time, re-introduce the new way of sho to the Japanese. I would like to contribute to the heritage of my own culture. To express our thoughts through
collaborations with fine art (Paintings), I would like to establish the new Japanese fine art," said Inoue. Koichi Terai studied art at Tokyo National University of Fine Art and Music and originally had an interest in European classical works. Terai's main theme is natural phenomenon, such as the earth, air, trees, water, light, sounds, and so on. He also expresses people's inherent qualities. He breathes his expression and the movement of his soul into the art and creates works that moves people. Recently, he has also used contemporary Japanese style as his theme. He draws from events that have occurred in the past year as a means of reflecting upo the social conditions of the country.
Terai, who instinctively turns away by habit, is an artist who has no alternative but to continue his own original pursuits based on his robust technique. For this reason, he is sure to offer a steady stream of bold new visions in the coming year.