[Discover Japanese Nihonga #5] Exhibition Guide : a /synchronous | Kaori Someya Solo Exhibition 

Exhibition : a /synchronous | Kaori Someya Solo Exhibition
On View : April 8th － August 14th, 2021
Location : Sato Sakura Gallery, 501 W 20th St., New York, NY 10011
　Sato Sakura Gallery New York is very proud to present the very first solo exhibition outside Japan of Nihonga painter Kaori Someya. a / synchronous brings together 16 works large and small with an emphasis on Someya’s renowned figurative works.
　Kaori Someya is a Tokutai ranking member of the prestigious Nihon Bijutsuin, a premiere art academy founded in Japan in 1898 with the purpose of promoting the research and development of Nihonga Japanese painting. In addition to her major contributions during Nihon Bijutsuin ‘INTEN’ exhibitions, Someya has participated in countless solo and group shows.
　Someya’s career stride began in 2001; while still attending the graduate studies program at Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku), she received her first major endorsement from Nihon Bijutsuin and was chosen to submit works to both the ‘Saiko INTEN,’ and ‘Spring INTEN’ exhibitions. Someya later went on to win honourable mentions accolades seven and five times for submissions to subsequent ‘Saiko’ and ‘Spring’ INTEN exhibitions respectively. Then, during the 2013 ‘Spring INTEN,’ Someya received the distinguished Minister of Foreign Affairs Award, followed thereafter by the ‘Adachi Museum of Art Prize’ which she received for her submission to the ‘Saiko INTEN’ exhibition in 2018; it was for this particular accolade that she was made a Tokutai ranking member of the Nihon Bijutsuin.
　Kaori Someya combines insights from her extensive research of East Asian painting materials - specifically those of Japan during the Edo-period, with a compositional philosophy that emphasizes the creation of harmony of diverse elements in a single defined space.
　The wide variety of materials used in Nihonga painting includes pigments derived from minerals, dyes made from plants and other organic sources, and metals like silver and gold. Japanese Nihonga painters combine and arrange these various materials to create their compositions. Moreover, in the process of doing so, Nihonga artists strive not only to simply capture the likeness or characteristic shape of their subject, but to achieve an overall expression that is aesthetically beautiful and ornamental.
　In addition, Nihonga expression is unique for its attitude toward the treatment of time and space. In the employment of the Japanese aesthetic of yohaku, in where the artist intentionally leaves parts of a painting devoid of lines or decorative elements - that is to say it is left ‘blank’ - the viewer is made to feel the flow of time, of space, and is invited to perceive the atmosphere of the work. Some artists will even combine multiple time axes in a single painting, whereby an entirely new form of perception and insight is born.
　Someya’s principle pursuit as a painter is the exploration of Nihonga expression that achieves harmony while incorporating these aforementioned highly complex and diverse elements in a single painting.
　Among the many notable works specially composed for this exhibition is a pair of two panel screens entitled Yoruhiru Sakura-zu - meaning cherry blossoms by day and by night - inspired by the renowned work Kohaku bai-zu Byobu by Korin Ogata (1658 - 1716) of the Rinpa school of painting, Someya’s unique interpretation of a furosaki byobu tea-room screen in a work that combines cedar wood and paper substrate, and a portrayal of the four seasons of Japan composed on folding paper fans.
　In the aforementioned diptych Yoruhiru Sakura-zu, night and day - normally temporal opposites - are brought together side by side in a single cohesive work, while a body of flowing water divides two kimono-clad women drawn on the left and right panels. Someya’s exploration of the traditional Japanese aesthetic of hare, the extraordinary or non-reality, and ke, the mundane or real, is exemplified in the depiction of the two women’s expressions and gestures; drawn facing each other against a backdrop of abstract shapes and patterns cast in brilliant gold leaf, the entire work exudes a tremendous sense of presence. The application of gold leaf throughout the entire work and the detailed patterns of the kimono and the obi-belt lend an alluring ornamental quality to the motif. It is precisely in this contrasted pairing of planar two-dimensional decorative design elements, and realistic three-dimensional figurative composition in this and other works by Someya, that epitomizes the aesthetic principle of hare and ke. In bringing together in one work, one space, and in one time, these kinds of contrary aesthetic and temporal elements, Someya aims for her viewers to wander, back and forth, between them.
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◆Music : shimtone「夏宵の空」