Artist's Reception: Friday, June 4, 2010, 5:30 - 7:30pm
LewAllen Galleries is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, Hiroshi Yamano: Scenes of Japan. Harmonizing ancient traditions with cutting-edge techniques originating in Japan, Europe, and the United States, Hiroshi Yamano’s glass art exemplifies the generative potential of cultural interchange while commenting on his own search for experiences that transcend borders. His pieces frequently incorporate silvery glass fish that appear in constant motion – slipping in and out of elegant vessel forms that evoke the constant flow of water. Referencing the ocean as both a bridge and a barrier between Japan and the West, his art offers the sea as an evocative symbol of the conflicts between tradition and change, isolation and openness – an elemental space that both encloses and embraces the complex dialogues of personal and national identity. On view from June 4th to 27th, 2010, Yamano’s exhibition at LewAllen Galleries’s Downtown venue will present new works that inspire tranquil meditation.
Celebrated equally for their astounding formal innovations and considerable conceptual richness, Yamano’s sculptures are praised as instances of the most technically accomplished glass art produced today. In a unique method the artist adapted from Japan’s history of metal crafts, complex forms of blown, sculpted, cut, and polished glass are fused with delicate layers of silver leaf while still hot and preceding copper plating – allowing him to emulate the intricate decorative surfaces of Japanese screen paintings.
Born and raised in Japan, Hiroshi Yamano received his arts education from the California College of Arts, the Tokyo Glass Art Institute, the Pilchuk School of Glass, and the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he earned his MFA in 1989. His work is included in such significant public collections as the Corning Glass Museum, the Wheaton Glass Museum, the Chrysler Museum, and the Grand Crystal Gallery of Taiwan. A recipient of the Rakow Commission for the Corning Glass Museum, and a former guest artist at Waterford Crystal, Yamano continues to teach and lecture in glass art programs internationally.