Sasai Fumie

TAI Modern proudly announces the first solo U.S. show of Japanese lacquer artist Sasai Fumie, opening on Friday, July 25. Sasai is currently a professor at Kyoto City University of Arts, where she received her undergraduate and graduate degrees. While the history of Japanese and pan-Asian lacquerware is millenia old (the oldest traces of lacquer being found on Neolithic earthenware pottery), Sasai has focused on refining her technique and design sensibility to imbue her works with a sense of softness and friendliness. The soft-polished sheen, defined corners and folds, approachable shapes, and bright colors of the urushi lacquer all work together to populate the artist’s world.

Sasai Fumie learned the art of kanshitsu, meaning dry lacquer, from Shinkai Gyokuho (1939-2021), her teacher at the Kyoto City University of Arts. He was of the first artists to use the technique to create abstract forms, incorporating lightweight Styrofoam as the base of the piece, and subsequently layering urushi lacquer and pieces of hemp cloth on top of it. This technique allows the pieces to become lighter, thus allowing for more freedom of composition. This is the foundation for every piece Sasai creates.

Sasai cites the Japanese phrase “Fueki Ryuko” (不易流行) as guiding her artistic journey. Proposed by Mastsuo Basho, a haiku master active during the Edo period (1603-1868), the phrase captures the balance between fueki—a value or principle that does not change over time, and ryuko—the ever-changing trends. Sasai says, “As my fueki, I have used the motifs of flowers, fruits and children, and the soft texture of the urushi surface to express textures and shapes that make you want to touch them.” She continues, “These expressions have fluctuated and changed little by little as I have spent time with urushi, and these changes have become my ryuko.”

For this exhibition, Sasai has brought together those changes to create works that speak to the bright and lively nature of contemporary art, both in Japan and in the west. Her forms, from boxes in the shape of realistic peaches and persimmons to abstract collaborations with bamboo artists that meditate on the compositions of eggs in nests, Sasai Fumie prepares to delight and enchant us with her beautiful work.

We warmly invite you to join the artist in the gallery at 1601 Paseo de Peralta for the opening on Friday, July 25 from 5-7PM, and then on Saturday, July 26 at 2PM for a lecture on the artform, as well as a gallery walkthrough with Sasai Fumie.

Images © Imamura Yuji.