Dramatizing Space: Toko Shinoda’s Folding Screens

Toko Shinoda

January 16 (Mon.) to March 22 (Wed.), 2023

Information

Number of items exhibited

12

Period

January 16 (Mon.) to March 22 (Wed.), 2023

Closed

2nd and 4th Saturdays, Sundays, national holidays

Admission

Free

Event

Workshop: How to Make a “Karakuri” (Trick Panel) Folding Screen
Date: March 12, 2023
Time: (first session) 10:00–11:30 a.m.
and (second session) 1:30–3:00 p.m.

About the Exhibition

Toko Shinoda is known for having pioneered the new genre of abstract expression in sumi ink. The works she created through the merging of calligraphic traditions and abstract art are distinguished by their sensitive expression of sumi and innovative and bold treatment of space based on her own aesthetic. Particularly her folding screens, which while two-dimensional as picture surfaces, create dynamic, three-dimensional space, are compelling for their contemporaneous union of abstract expression in broad lines and planes and their traditional aesthetic harmony of shimmering gold and silver with the deep subtleties of sumi ink. By virtue of their physical shape, moreover, folding screens change in appearance according to the angle of their opening and display. Not only do they dramatize the space within which they stand and evoke depth and perspective in the images on their surfaces; they can set in motion rhythms arising from mutual responsiveness between what is painted on right and left panels.
This exhibition presents Toko’s folding screen works created from 2000 onward, during which her own robust style of expression was established and matured.