Fall 2003 Osaka-Tokyo-Kyoto
Contemporary Art Prints from Japan and Bulgaria. Exhibition in the National Gallery for Foreign Art. November 5 - November 31 2001
Contemporary Bulgarian Art Prints. Exhibition in the Gallery of the Union of the Bulgarian Artists. "Shipka 6", January 18th - January 31st, 2002
Contemporary Art Prints from Japan and Bulgaria, March 11th - March 26th, 2002
Wittgenstein House - Vienna
Should you need more information on any of the names below, do not hesitate to contact us. The printed catalogues Contemporary Japanese Art Prints and Contemporary Bulgarian Art Prints are now available.
Shigeaki Koeda’s “Tulip with Cup 1” (top) and
Keisuke Yamamoto’s “Light Time Silence 22”
are two of the 15 works by Japanese artists to be shown at the National Foreign Art Gallery as part of the Contemporary Art Prints from Japan and Bulgaria exhibition.
The National Foreign Art Gallery is hosting a unique meeting of Bulgarian
and Japanese art in an exhibition of Contemporary Art Prints from Japan
and Bulgaria. From November 5 to 30, the halls of the gallery in Alexander
Nevski Square, at 1, 19 February Street, will show to art admirers the
best of the graphic art of both countries.
The works of 30 artists from Japan and Bulgaria will be on display showing
the best examples of graphic art created over the past few years. Bulgarian
participants include artists who have gained fame over the past 20 or
even 30 years, such as Rumen Scorchev, Nikolai Maystorov, Ivan Ninov
and Milko Bozhkov. Their Japanese counterparts include renowned artists
such as Tadayoshi Nakabayashi, Seiko Kawachi, Tetsuya Noda, as well
as artists from the younger generation such as Rika Saito, Yuka Oshita
and Chiaki Shuji.
The exhibition is organized by the Lessedra Gallery together with the
Japanese Embassy in Bulgaria, the Japan Foundation and the Union of
Bulgarian Artists under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture.
The idea for the joint exhibition first came last spring during the
visit to Bulgaria of Akira Kurosaki, a professor at the department of
printmaking and papermaking with the Kyoto Seika University, said Georgi
Kolev, owner of the private Bulgarian gallery Lessedra. The gallery
was chosen by the Japanese participants to be the main organizer of
the event.
The exhibition in Sofia is only part of the joint Japanese-Bulgarian
project. A travelling exhibition of Bulgarian graphic art will also
tour large cities in Japan in 2002.
Along with the exhibitions, special art catalogues are being prepared.
The first one, titled Contemporary Japanese Prints, will be presented
at the opening of the exhibition on November 5. According to Kolev,
the catalogue is rather a monograph of Japanese graphic art because
it consists of works by the 15 Japanese participants in the exhibition
as well as an analysis of contemporary Japanese prints by Noriaki Seo,
curator of The SHOTO Museum of Art in Tokyo.
“These artists consider printmaking as one of many possible directions
they may choose from and try deliberately to let their work roam free
over the vast terrain of art,” wrote Seo in his analysis entitled
The Art of Perception and Viewpoints. “Instead of exploring the
meaning or structure of printing, they make it reflect in their expressions
in a more general way while working with various media.”
The Contemporary Art Prints from Japan and Bulgaria exhibition is part
of the days of Japanese Culture which will continue until the end of
November. The organizers of the Days, from the Japanese Embassy and
the Japan Foundation, have prepared a lecture on Japanese Haiku poetry
on November 7, at 7pm at Interpred’s Sofia Hall. A Japanese poet
will explain the rules for creating haiku poems and acquaint the audience
with the history and distribution of that famous type of poetry around
the world.
An exhibition of contemporary Japanese crafts will open on November
9 at the Foreign Art Gallery and will show 64 traditional craft works
until November 22. The aim of the exhibition is to show the influence
that the different epochs have had on the development of traditional
crafts of Japan.
The musical side of Japanese culture will bring the days to a close
with a jazz concert on November 17, at 7pm at the Ivan Vazov National
Theatre. Six musicians from the band Toru Nakajima Project-Latin-Jazz-Japonisimo
will play jazz and Latino music with elements of Japanese pop.