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Satomi Kusaka (1935 - ) Virgin Tomb
A woodblock print from the Manyo series, numbered 5/75, dated 1985, titled and signed by the artist along the lower margin, framed and glazed.
64cm x 48cm, total 69 cm x 55cm
Satomi Kusaka is a mysterious artist. When I first heard this feminine name I thought they were a woman! Born in Tsuyama, Okayama Prefecture, he studied alongside other important Sôsaku Hanga artists. He participated in group exhibitions and since 1955 also held solo shows.
Googling his name I mainly came across some very bland, vanilla landscapes, but search deeper and you will find detailed prints populated by nymphs and goddesses morphing into trees and melting into the surrounding nature. All wonderfully detailed and thematically stemming from Japanese and Western mythology. An occasional skull can be found as an Easter egg in the background, just like in the current work, reminding us of the impending death, organically ending every form of life, just as much a part of it as freshness and youth of the young goddesses.
Wood - block Hanga One-man show, 1984, exhibition poster, signed in pencil by the artist to the lower right
Japan, woodblock and anastatic print on paper, framed and glazed, sheet 79cm x 54.5cm
Seikō Kawachi is best known for his distinctive architectural compositions set against dark backgrounds, evoking a fusion of contemporary cityscapes and futuristic, science fiction space stations. His mature style is semi-abstract, almost always on dark backgrounds, with reference to mechanical stress and general sense of unease. His use of the natural woodgrain patterns creates an additional dimension to what is essentially a flat artwork: this can only be fully appreciated when one faces the print in person.
AELHRA (AMERICAN, b. 1982)
Unidentified
A silk screen print on paper, edition 27/30, numbered, signed and dated 2016 by the artist along the lower margin, framed and glazed
61cm x 45.5cm total 77cm x 66cm
Aelhra (pronounced alar-uh), Sarah Rocheleau, graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Aelhra's layered images involving traditional printmaking techniques and digital processes explore human experience through themes such as identity, memory, sexuality and mortality. Her surreal and dreamlike aesthetics makes her work appeal to a wide audience and has been exhibited in galleries and museums across the United States, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville and the Honolulu Museum of Art. Aelhra also produced illustrations for magazines such as The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.