Ralph Rucci and Hiroto Rakusho “Collaboration”
Onishi Gallery
This event has ended.
Onishi Gallery presents “collaboration”, a two-person show of artworks by Kyoto Gold Leaf Master Hiroto Rakusho and New York fashion designer Ralph Rucci. Four large scale works painted in acrylic by Rucci on gold, bronze or silver leaf panels created by Rakusho, mark a rich, nuanced, cross-cultural understanding. Each artist’s recent personal works express his unique artistic vision: Rucci’s works with hidden layers of meaning and bold, kinetic dynamism; Rakusho’s reflecting a continuing fascination with the moon and the many colors of heated silver metal leaf – which change over time.
Ralph Rucci was born in Philadelphia in 1956. He majored in Philosophy at Temple University, and studied Fashion Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. For almost 30 years, he has been working with the most luxurious fabrics and specialized collaborators in the world, creating women’s clothing considered by many to be wearable art. He has been a painter for more than 30 years, with four solo shows since 2005.
Hiroto Rakusho was born in Kyoto in 1962. He apprenticed with his father, Jisaku Nishiyama, winner of the City of Kyoto Award for Outstanding Technical Contribution to Traditional Handicrafts, and was certified by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as a Master of Traditional Handicrafts in 1997. He has worked to expand metal leaf design as an art form, collaborating with artists and students from diverse backgrounds in Japan and abroad. Since 2005, he has held three solo shows, two in Kyoto museums and one in New York.
Rakusho is an integral part of the Kyoto Digital Culture Movement, which uses digital techniques to restore and reproduce air-pollution and age-damaged ancient artworks on paper and wood stored away in Kyoto’s museums, shrines and temples. This has taken him to American museums and The Louvre Museum, Paris, making reproductions which return famous Japanese artworks back for public viewing. (Non-profit Kyoto Culture Association which administers this program, will receive 10% of the proceeds from sales of this exhibition. www.kyo-bunka.or.jp )
[Image: Ralph Rucci and Hiroto Rakusho "Each Day is a Gift" (2010) gold and silver leaf & acrylic on Japanese washi paper, 43 x 82 in.]
Media
Schedule
from February 09, 2010 to February 27, 2010
Opening Reception on 2010-02-17 from 18:00 to 21:00
Reception & Exhibition at The Xchange, 640 West 28th Street, 9th Floor