NYAB Event - Hiroto Rakusho "Gold Leaf Kyoto"

Hiroto Rakusho "Gold Leaf Kyoto"

This event has ended.
At Onishi Gallery
Media: Painting, Prints, Crafts

For this “Asia Week in New York”, Onishi Gallery imports “Gold Leaf Kyoto, Hiroto Rakusho” another important exhibition sponsored by The Kyoto International Cultural Foundation and other cultural and government groups in the area, which highlights both the historical and contemporary uses of gold and silver metal leaf in Japanese art, in a unique cultural preservation program that uses high tech, high definition digital printing techniques to reproduce centuries old National Treasures and other major art works, stored and rarely on view in the temples and shrines of the former capitol city of Japan and permits them now to be seen by a wider international audience. Hiroto Rakusho, a Master of Traditional Handicrafts, known for his skill in metal leaf design and the creative production of patterned gold and silver leaf as an art form, has been a part of this project since its inception, applying the gold leaf that animates and gives “soul” to the digital images generated from deteriorating byobu (folding screens).

Hiroto’s meticulous application of gold leaf, on one such digital reproduction on traditional handmade washi paper at “Releasing the Spirit of Kyoto” exhibition at Artexpo, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center here in 2006, demonstrated how a traditionally trained artisan of today, could meld with the creative spirit of outstanding artists from centuries ago to reproduce their work in a thoroughly unconventional way.