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  • New Contemporary Exhibition: Takashi Tomo-oka

New Contemporary Exhibition: Takashi Tomo-oka

  • Friday, April 19, 2013
  • Sunday, July 28, 2013
  • Pacific Asia Museum (Pasadena, CA)

   


April 19 to July 28, 2013

Open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.


Pacific Asia Museum

46 North Los Robles Avenue, Pasadena, CA 91101


Takashi Tomo-oka features six scroll-mounted photographic works that combine the classical and contemporary. As a young artist, Tomo-oka became interested in nihonga (neo-traditional Japanese painting) but was drawn to photography, adopting the digital camera as his medium rather than a brush. Tomo-oka eliminates all extraneous visual information other than the subject itself: vegetal forms such as maples and dahlias. The resulting images display a sensibility similar to that of the Rimpa school's nature studies in the 18th century, but replacing their gold leaf with stark white backgrounds. Each work is the result of careful study of the plant forms, including structure and color as well as their ephemerality. These spare compositions are digitally printed on washi (paper) and mounted in scroll format, further blurring the divide between his painterly sensibilities and digital methods.

 

Born in Kyoto prefecture in 1971 to a basket weaver and a dressmaker, Takashi Tomo-oka developed a keen eye for the diversity of the natural world at an early age while accompanying his father on field trips to gather bamboo for baskets. While living in the Kyoto area, which had long been an imperial capital of Japan, Tomo-oka was exposed to highly refined Japanese art forms. He later worked as a landscape gardener and gained access to famous temple complexes such as Byōdō-in and Ryōan-ji. This allowed him to incorporate first-hand experience of classical garden design and the paintings and other objects in the temple collections in his work. These life experiences created a unique perspective, richly grounded in the traditional arts of Japan, which dovetailed with the formal training he received as a painter at Kyoto Seika University. Tomo-oka lives and works in Tokyo, and had his first solo exhibition in the U.S. in New York in 2012. This will be his first exhibition in an American museum and first appearance on the west coast.

 

Takashi Tomo-oka will be on view concurrently with the exhibitions The Garden in Asia and Focus on the Subject: The Art of the Harari Collection, allowing the visitor to reference the traditional nature paintings and Japanese art that have influenced Tomo-oka throughout his career.


Related programs for Takashi Tomo-oka will include: 

Art and Coffee: Friday, May 10, 3 p.m.  

Fusion Fridays: Friday, June 21, 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Curator's Tour: Saturday, July 13, 2 p.m.


Admission

$10 general

$7 students/seniors

Free for museum members and children under 12

Admission is free every 4th Friday of the month.


For more information visit www.pacificasiamuseum.org or call (626) 449-2742.



Top Images:    

Takashi Tomo-Oka, Dahlia, 2010, Digital photograph printed on washi and mounted on scroll, Courtesy of Ippodo Gallery, © Takashi Tomo-oka
Takashi Tomo-Oka, Magnolia, 2011, Digital photograph printed on washi and mounted on scroll, Courtesy of Ippodo Gallery, © Takashi Tomo-oka
Takashi Tomo-Oka, Lotus 3, 2011, Digital photograph printed on washi and mounted on scroll, Courtesy of Ippodo Gallery, © Takashi Tomo-oka

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