“Spring Tide,” a basket of bamboo and lacquer, by Fujinuma Noboru.

What comes to mind with bamboo? Groves of tall, graceful, shushing, clonking stems? Eco-friendly building material? If you’re into art, you might think of delicate paintings of bamboo or meticulously plaited baskets.

As one of Japan’s most abundant natural resources, bamboo has been a popular material and subject for centuries, although the training and expertise involved has limited its practitioners. Today, according to some accounts, there are fewer than 100 professional bamboo artists.

In the hands of the 17 artists in “Modern Twist: Contemporary Japanese Bamboo Art,” on view at Bellevue Arts Museum, the grass becomes embedded in clay, nailed to a wall, or twisted and steamed and manipulated into a range of forms that break the boundaries of tradition.

It’s best to keep traditional bamboo basketry in mind if you visit “Modern Twist,” in order to appreciate how radical these forms are. My criticism of the show is that it presupposes a familiarity with the ideal against which these artists react. It would have been nice to have a small introductory display with examples of conventional basket forms — maybe in different stages of development as they’re typically woven from the bottom up.

Tradition is an enormously important backdrop for these artists. The apprenticeship and training system follows strict protocols and can take years; according to some experts, 10 years can be spent just learning the basic techniques of cutting, dying and plaiting.

To get some sense of the history and conventions of bamboo art, I suggest starting with the gallery to your left as you come up the stairs from the lobby. It’s filled with bamboo pieces that more directly refer to the traditional uses of bamboo art — as containers made for tea ceremonies or flower arranging. But even here, it becomes clear that the artists are taking liberties. Some play with technique, weaving from the top down, for example. Some play with form, plaiting their functional vase structures into evocative forms.

My favorite is “Warrior” by Tanabe Shochiku III, who has created a functional flower basket in the shape of the top portion of a samurai’s suit of armor. The container for holding flowers is right in the neck hole, supplanting the mighty warrior’s head. The ideas of tradition and lineage resonate for Tanabe. He comes from a long line of bamboo artists and is the son of the well-respected artist Tanabe Chikuunasai III, whose work is also in the exhibition.

In other galleries, artists leave function and tradition even further behind. At about 4 feet high, “Circle” by Nagakura Ken’ichi is a massive presence. Nagakura first created a basket, then sluiced clay over it and wiped down areas to reveal strips of shiny bamboo. These shards radiate inward toward the void of the circle, creating the impression of movement and contradicting the density of the piece.

It’s as if the standard cylindrical basket form has been upended, punched through, and petrified, both distorting and preserving history, while creating possibilities of expression. And there’s still a nod to functionality with a small vase, barely visible, embedded in the center.

Works by Uematsu Chikuyu are overtly sculptural. His wall-hanging works — a rare form for bamboo art — are large-scale and nonfunctional (except, of course, as they function as works of art). But, even here, the structures could be seen as more abstracted containers of tradition. Uematsu fills his work with symbolic references to common Japanese artistic motifs: enlightenment, nature, music, patterns.

Curated by Andreas Marks, of the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture (in Hanford, Calif.), “Modern Twist” is one of several exhibitions and books of the last decade that establish bamboo art as a prestigious contemporary art form. Two artists in the exhibition, Katsushiro Soho and Fujinuma Noboru, have been named Living National Treasures by the Japanese government.

The show also reflects well on BAM’s continuing, thoughtful practice of curating or selecting art, craft, and design exhibitions that allow us to reflect on the fluid intersections of art and craft, form and function, and tradition and innovation. Or we can simply be duly impressed by marvelous objects made with remarkable skill.

In honor of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition centennial celebration, TAI Modern is thrilled to present an expansive group exhibition at the Japanese Friendship Garden of San Diego, San Diego, CA, September 12 – December 6, 2015.The show will include over forty bamboo artworks created by a variety of artists. This special preview exhibition on view at TAI Modern highlights several historic works, some on view for the first time.

The 1915 Panama-California Exposition—which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal and sought to establish San Diego as a port of call—was the site of a major early exhibition of Japanese arts and culture, including bamboo art, in the United States. Beginning in the late 19^thCentury, Japan’s participation in the world’s fairs initiated some of the earliest encounters with Japan’s art and culture within Europe and the Unites States, resulting in an enormous demand for their unique products.

Japanese Bamboo and the World Expo: A Century of Discovery celebrates the fairs’ roles as critical moments of international exposure that inspired Japanese bamboo artists to further their crafts. With pieces spanning from an 1887 vessel by Hayakawa Shokosai I to Nakatomi Hajime’s 2015 Prism: Square, the exhibition provides a rich introduction to the diverse developments bamboo arts have undergone throughout the last century. The show is organized around three primary regions of bamboo art: Kansai, centered around the historic cities of Kyoto and Osaka; Kanto,which encompasses the Tokyo metropolis and the urbanized center of Japan; and Kyushu,the southernmost of Japan’s main islands.

KANSAI

The birthplace of modern Japanese bamboo, the Kansai aesthetic is characterized by elegant forms, balanced proportions, refined craftsmanship and elaborate detail. Kyoto, the historic capital of Japan for over a millennia—also the birthplace of the sencha tea ceremony—was traditionally home to members of the nobility, whose refined tastes and high culture influenced bamboo artists. Three pieces from the Hayakawa Shokosai lineage, spanning almost a century, exemplify the region’s graceful shapes,intricate rattan work, rich dyes, and harmonious integration of various weaving techniques. In later works, such as Tanabe Chikuunsai II’s Lily-shaped Flower Basket, all of these traits are retained while artists have shifted toward lighter constructions and airy, open weaves.

KANTO

The Kanto region, centered around the Tokyo metropolis, is home to artists known for their innovation and break with tradition. From a broad range of colors and types of bamboo to inventive, asymmetrical shapes, these artists share an impulse for experimentation. This is evident in Isohi Setsuko’s cherry-red dyes and Honma Kazuaki’s use of shakotandake, a unique type of speckled bamboo grass. Oki Toshie’s geometric Spring Breezeand Honma Hideaki’s abstracted sculptures exemplify ongoing explorations within bamboo’s potential for new techniques and forms.

KYUSHU

Kyushu, the youngest of the three regions (bamboo art began in this region in the early 1900s), is currently home to the largest number of practicing bamboo artists due to the establishment of the Oita Prefectural Bamboo Craft and Training Support Center in the city of Beppu. Influenced by a number of teachers from various regions, the Kyushu artists are known for powerful constructions and robust, jar-shaped curvatures.Interest in dynamic horizontal progression can be seen in pieces such as Honda Syoryu’s Sound of Wavesand Okazaki Chikuhosai’s Flower Basket with Arrow Design. Many of these artist’s styles embrace bamboo’s wooden qualities, often using wider strips of material and dyes in a natural palette; this is seen in Yufu Shohaku’s muscular Sacred Mountainand Iwao Honan I’s Blue Ocean plaited Flower Basket.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TAI Modern at Art Miami 2017
December 5^th– 10^th, 2017
One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL

Contact:
Arianna Borgeson
Arianna@taimodern.com
(505) 984-1387

TAI Modern is pleased to announce its participation in the 28^thyear of Art Miami. This year’s fair will be held at a new location at One Herald Plaza, on 14^thStreet between the Venetian and MacArthur Causeways. Art Miami opens with a VIP preview on Thursday, December 5^th, and runs through Sunday, December 10^th. TAI Modern will be exhibiting recent works by contemporary Japanese bamboo masters, as well as contemporary American artists of various media.

For TAI Modern’s return to the fair, the gallery will present works which reflect the continued development of the Japanese bamboo arts. Representing over 35 artists in this medium, including Living National Treasure Fujinuma Noboru, TAI Modern has been the premier gallery for contemporary Japanese bamboo art for over 20 years. Other noteworthy bamboo artists include Honda Syoryu, Fujitsuka Shosei, and Nagakura Kenichi, who each exemplify varying traditional and regional aesthetics with their unique sculptural styles. These artists have pieces in several major American museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is featuring its first exhibit of Japanese bamboo art.

To compliment the selection of Japanese bamboo, TAI Modern will also feature works by contemporary American painters Erik Benson, Siobhan McBride, and Monique van Genderen. Benson’s work is highly detailed with an urban edge, creating cityscapes with his signature technique of cutting shapes from acrylic paint and applying them to canvas. McBride’s work is fragmented and dream-like, her subject matter and color choice represent a combination of the mundane and unfamiliar.  In contrast, van Genderen’s work focuses more on the versatility of her color and her use of direct brushstrokes, which result in highly lyrical compositions.

For more information about Art Miami or to request a pass to the fair, please contact Arianna Borgeson at arianna@taimodern.com, or (505) 984-1387.