Exhibition: March 20 – April 26, 2014
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 20, 7–9pm
Part of the Scottsdale ArtWalk
Gallery Hours: Mon – Sat 10am–5:30pm;
Thursdays 10am–5pm & 7–9pm ArtWalk
LewAllen Galleries Scottsdale presents “Scenes of Japan”, a solo exhibition of glass sculpture by Japanese artist Hiroshi Yamano, from March 20 through April 26, 2014. The artist will travel from his home in Japan to be honored at the opening reception of this debut exhibition of his work in Arizona on Thursday, March 20 from 7-9 pm as part of the Scottsdale ArtWalk.
Hiroshi Yamano’s intricate and intriguing glass art pursues an enduring theme — that of the universal search for treasures of experience that transcend borders and cultures —one that began for the artist more than 20 years ago, while earning his MFA in the United States. Yamano’s artistry reflects the influence of teachers in Japan who emphasized technical perfection and tradition as well as teachers in the West who encouraged risk-taking and self-expression. The cultures merge in this uniquely innovative and expressive art.
Celebrated equally for their remarkable conceptual richness and outstanding formal innovations, 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.
The resulting works are infinitely engaging. As with all truly great work in three dimensions, they offer intriguing views from different perspectives. Yamano expands the intrigue by making full use of the refractive and reflective properties of translucent carved glass. Facets cut into the vessels’ surface yield endlessly variable images of the silvery, glass fish inside; in addition, schools of fish delicately engraved in the metallic layers of the vessels are seen alternately as positive images on the outside surface and as negative images in the interior.
Yamano was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1956, and began traveling to Europe and America before he turned 20. He received his earliest glass training at the California College of Arts and Crafts and then returned to Japan to attend the newly inaugurated Tokyo Glass Art Institute. He later earned his MFA at Rochester Institute of Technology. His distinctive fusion of Japanese, American and European glass and metal craft has won many honors, including a Rakow Commission for the Corning Glass Museum in 1991. He receives numerous invitations to exhibit internationally, and he has been a teacher and lecturer in glass art programs around the world. His work is in the permanent collections of the Corning Glass Museum in New York, the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, the Wheaton Glass Museum in New Jersey, the Chrysler Museum in Virginia, the Lowe Art Museum in Florida, the Charles A. Wustum Museum in Wisconsin, and the Grand Crystal Gallery on Taiwan.
Yamano currently lives and works in Japan.
