Yozo hamaguchi artistic tile

Leandro Erlich
"Batiment II"
Inkjet print on photo paper
140 x 90 cm (image size)
2004

TODO
"Hotel Okura Tokyo - Golden tile"
debris, Layered glass
w11.3 x d7 x h4.9 cm / 389g
2017

TODO
"Hotel Okura Tokyo - Sea cucumber wall"
debris, Layered glass
w5.5 x d5.3 x h25.8 cm
2020

Yuma Tomiyasu
"Moonlit Trees (with Lady in White Dress)"
oil on panel
130.3 x 97 cm（F60）
2019
photo by Ken Kato

Yuma Tomiyasu
"Girl without Features"
oil on panel
45.5x38cm
2017

Michiko Nakatani
"Tree becoming a boat"
resin, plaster, pigment, stainless steel
w31xd57xh5㎝
2019

Tomomi Nishizawa
"Lip Gloss"
stainless steel,glass,resin
w47xd17xh163㎝
2020

The mezzotint, arguably the most difficult of printmaking techniques, was invented in 17th century Amsterdam and flourished in 18th century England. Because of its ability to convey texture and tone, it was used primarily as a way to disseminate reproductions of paintings. Katsunori Hamanishi, a world-renowned contemporary Japanese master mezzotint printmaker, has realized with unparalleled skill and elegance of expression the potential inherent in this technique and has taken the medium to a new level with the inclusion of the traditional Japanese art of gold leaf.

Hamanishi’s early prints depict sculptural models that the artist often created using various objects like roof tiles tied with fabric which shows the artist’s virtuosity with the medium. Some of his abstracts combine micro and macro views of rice grains and rice paddies punctuated with gorgeous and vivid colors. His more recent work incorporates traditional Japanese themes and aesthetics such as the kimono and stylized views of nature made opulent with various techniques of adding gold leaf, silver, and mica.

Katsunori Hamanishi was born in Hokkaido and graduated with a degree in art from Tokai University in 1973. From 1987 to 1988, he was a visiting artist at the Cleveland Art Institute with a grant from the Japan Agency for Cultural Affairs.

In 2012, he had a two-person show, The Art of Darkness, with Yozo Hamaguchi at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian, in 2013, a one-person show at The Art Institute of Chicago and in 2015, his work was included in the exhibition Kimono: A Modern History, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the same year, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the U of O invited the artist to Eugene to give a talk and demonstration in conjunction with their exhibition Expanding Frontiers: The Jack and Susy Wadsworth Collection of Postwar Japanese Prints. White Lotus Gallery is honored to present the largest collection of his work in

HAMAGUCHI Yozo was born in 1909 in Wakayama in 1909. He is the third son of the tenth president of Yamasa Shoyu, a soy sauce producer since 1645. Hamaguchi left the family business to pursue sculpture at Tokyo University of the Arts (formerly the National University of Fine Arts and Music of Tokyo). In 1930, he left his university and went to France to study oil painting, watercolors and copperplate engraving. He returned to Japan on the brink of World War II. Determined to engrave in his own way, he went to Paris again in 1953, and in 1955 to develop the original technique of "mezzotint" there. Since receiving the Grand Prize of the International Section of Printmaking at the São Paulo Biennale in 1957, he has been awarded numerous times at various international art exhibitions and is considered one of the most great artists of the world. He moved to San Francisco in 1981 where he pursued his art for 15 years. He eventually returned to Japan in 1996 and died in 2000.