SHODO CONTEMPORARY

“SHODO CONTEMPORARY”, a group exhibition by Gakushu Tanaka, Saori Kunihiro, and Ouma will be held at LAG（LIVE ART GALLERY) from Friday, April 19 to Saturday, May 11, 2024.

Avant-garde Japanese calligraphy started shortly after World War Ⅱ to create a new history of Japanese calligraphy, reaching mighty in the 1950s with an encounter with abstract expressionism paintings and the appearance of Yuichi Inoue, who received international recognition.
In the decades since then, the world of Japanese calligraphy has developed continuously up to the present day, but except for a few artists, has remained far from the global context of Art.
In recent years, several artists have emerged who are conscious of that kind of situation and are making challenging attempts to explore the possibilities of calligraphy as a form of expression.

The three up-and-coming artists featured in this exhibition all mutating and expanding the identity of Japanese calligraphy, reflect a modern perspective in their works, and present Japanese calligraphy as a contemporary art form.
Although Gakushu Tanaka, stance on the traditional techniques he has cultivated since his childhood, he introduces the concept of architecture into his calligraphy and attempts to expand his field of expression by using drawings and symbols to fantastically create three-dimensional calligraphy on a flat support.
Saori Kunihiro visualizes institutional issues such as gender and social attributes in modern society, as well as the human condition in the invisible oppression that SNS inflict on people, through her works using Kana Scripts established in the Heian period.
Ouma exposes the fuzzy notion of “author” in this modern society through her works based on traces of self-made manga drawn and randomly stitched together by generative AI and expresses words that she uploaded to her blog in the past but has no recollection of at the present day as calligraphy in the figure of speech balloons and deformed onomatopoeia.

We hope you will take this valuable opportunity to see the exhibition.

Saori Kunihiro

Born in Hiroshima in 1985, she lives in Kyoto. She started calligraphy when she was 6 years old. In 2011, She moved to Tokyo for calligraphy-based activities. She launched a jewelry brand using “Hiragana” as a motif in 2015. In 2019, she moved to Kyoto to become an artist-in-residence. Since then, she has been working as a contemporary artist.

［Artist Biography］
──Solo Exhibition──
2023 “petal lines” (Komyoin Zen Temple / Kyoto)
2022 “frame of self” (THE TERMINAL KYOTO / Kyoto)
2021 “Frame of self” ( Gioji Temple Gallery / Kyoto)
“Supple lines” (Matsuzakaya Department Store Nagoya / Aichi)
“Floating lines” (ARTBAY HOUSE TOKYO / Tokyo)
2020 “The ultimate in line” (haku gallery / Kyoto)

──Group Exhibition,etc.──
2023 “ART SHODO TRIAL” (Mitaka City Arts Center / Tokyo)
“JAPAN SHODO SHOW 2023” (Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo /Tokyo)
“ARTISTS’ FAIR KYOTO 2023” (Shosei-en Garden / Kyoto)
“SHODO NEW WAVE” (GARDE Gallery / Tokyo)
“SHODO NEW AGE” (MEDIA SHOP GALLERY&BOOKS / Kyoto)
“ART SHODO SELECTION in Tokyo #2 “ (Mitaka City Arts Center / Tokyo)

2022 “In the Flow” (KUNJYUKAN SHOYEIDO INCENSE CO. / Kyoto)
“Hyoubi Ten” ( Kyoto Keizai Center / Kyoto)
“ART SHODO SELECTION in Tokyo” (Mitaka City Arts Center / Tokyo)
“SHODO NEW AGE -Western conference-” (MEDIA SHOP GALLERY&BOOKS / Kyoto)
“SHODO NEW AGE -Eastern conference-“ (ICHIKAWA CITY CULTURAL HALL / Chiba)
SPIRAL INDEPENDENT CREATORS FESTIVAL “SICF23” (Tokyo)
“JAPAN SHODO SHOW 2022” (Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo /Tokyo)
“TOKYO SHODO WEEK” ( Mitaka City Arts Center / Tokyo)
2021 “ART SHODO FESTA in Fukuoka” (Fukuoka Asian Art Museum / Fukuoka)
Group Exhibition Untitled ( GINZA TSUTAYA BOOKS / Tokyo)
“ART@DAIMARU” ( DAIMARU DEPARTMENT STORE / Kyoto)
Dedication of artworks to Kamigamo Shrine, which is a World Heritage Site, Formal name : Kamo Wakeikazuchi Jinja Shrine.
“ART FAIR TOKYO 2021”　(Tokyo International Forum Hall Gallery / Tokyo)
“Paris and Kyoto Joint Project “Savoir-faire des Takumi” (Kyoto)
2020 “ART SHODO FESTA 2020” (Mitaka City Arts Center / Tokyo)