ART OF KYOTO

Onishi Gallery is proud to present “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.

The ancient cap­i­tal of Kyoto is a trea­sure trove of arts and arti­sanry, but the integrity of these works is threat­ened by the pas­sage of time. Gold Leaf Kyoto is address­ing the threat by com­bin­ing advanced image pro­cess­ing tech­nolo­gies with craft tra­di­tions passed down from over the gen­er­a­tions. Pre­serv­ing Japan’s cul­tural her­itage while cre­at­ing new beauty for our times is the essence of what Gold Leaf Kyoto does. The awe inspir­ing beauty that was cre­ated over the past twelve cen­turies and is even now being prac­ticed in Kyoto is some­thing that it would like future gen­er­a­tions in Japan and more peo­ple over­seas to appre­ci­ate. Gold Leaf Kyoto is cer­ti­fied by the Min­istry of Econ­omy, Trade and Indus­try as a “Busi­ness that Makes Use of Local Hand­i­craft Resources.”

Pre­serv­ing our cul­tural his­tory the art, archi­tec­ture and aes­thet­ics of our cities is one of the most impor­tant tasks any gen­er­a­tion attends to, espe­cially in an era in which many things feel dis­pos­able. The ancient Japan­ese cap­i­tal of Kyoto, with a his­tory dat­ing back over 1400 years, has a tremen­dous wealth of artis­tic mas­ter­pieces that were cre­ated orig­i­nally for tem­ples and shrines. These pieces were once widely viewed and enjoyed, but can no longer be shown pub­licly, due to dete­ri­o­ra­tion over time. In order to pre­serve this aes­thetic legacy and extend it to the next gen­er­a­tion, Kyoto Inter­na­tional Cul­ture Foun­da­tion has dig­i­tally repro­duced bril­liant sets of fusuma-e (slid­ing door art) mas­ter­pieces. In this pro­gram, internationally-acclaimed con­tem­po­rary nihon-ga artist Hiroshi Senju and Heather Hurst, 2004 MacArthur Fel­low for her recon­struc­tion work with the Mayan murals of Bonam­pak, will dis­cuss the impor­tance of cul­tural preser­va­tion, and what it means for our future. Mod­er­ated by Lau­ren Cor­nell, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, Rhizome.org.