EVENTS CONT’D: Exhibits at Denver Art Museum and ZOTTO

Kiyohara Yukinobu, The Goddess Benzaiten and Her Lute (biwa), 1660-1680s. Hanging scroll, ink, color and gold on silk. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.150. Photo © Denver Art Museum. Ono no Ozu, The Deified Sugawara Michizane Crossing to China, early 1600s. Hanging scroll; ink on paper. Denver Art Museum: Gift of Drs. John Fong and Colin Johnstone, 2018.152. Photo © Denver Art Museum.

Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection

Opens November 13, 2022 at Denver Art Museum

Her Brush: Japanese Women Artists from the Fong-Johnstone Collection takes a nuanced approach to questions of artistic voice, gender, and agency through more than 100 works of painting, calligraphy, and ceramics from 1600s to 1900s Japan.

Many of the artworks will be on view for the first time to the public. Her Brush traces the pathways women artists forged for themselves in their pursuit of art and explores the universal human drive of artistic expression as self-realization, while navigating cultural barriers during times marked by strict gender roles and societal regulations. These social restrictions served as both impediment and impetus to women pursuing artmaking in Japan at the time.

Her Brush showcases works by renowned artists such as Kiyohara Yukinobu 清原雪信 (1643–1682), Ōtagaki Rengetsu 太田垣蓮月 (1791–1875), and Okuhara Seiko 奥原晴湖 (1837–1913), as well as relatively unknown yet equally remarkable artists like Ōishi Junkyō 大石 順教 (1888–1968), Yamamoto Shōtō 山本緗桃 (1757–1831), and Katō Seikō 加藤青湖 (fl. 1800s). These works bring forward the subjects of autonomy, legacy, and a person’s ownership of their individual story.

Interactive components facilitate a personal, intimate connection between the visitor, the artwork, and the artist. Paintings, calligraphy, and ceramic works of art are presented through the lens of the exceptional individuals behind them, with biographical focuses that tell the stories of their makers interspersed throughout the galleries.

On view November 13, 2022 through May 13, 2023 at Martin Building, Level 1. Exhibit is included in general admission.

Rugged Beauty: Antique Carpets from Western Asia

Opens December 18, 2022 at Denver Art Museum

This exhibition opens a window into the artistic and utilitarian innovations of weavers, domestic consumption and the cross-cultural exchanges between present-day Turkey, Iran and the Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) from the 1500s to the 1900s. Rugged Beauty will be presented in the Avenir Textile Art and Fashion galleries on the 6th floor of the Martin Building and included in general admission.

Heriz or Tabriz, Northwest Iran, Fantasy Animal Carpet with Poem (Vaq Vaq Carpet), about 1880. Hand-knotted silk pile; silk warp and weft; 196 x 146.75 in. Neusteter Textile Collectionat the Denver Art Museum: Gift of James E. Stokes and Mrs. Donald Magarrell.

This November, the Japanese Arts Network in collaboration with Theatre Artibus, Luster Productions, and Control Group Productions brings a culturally poignant and emotionally thrilling immersive production to the Denver arts scene.

Connect and follow on Instagram: @zottofolk

Poster artwork by Manasuka

ZOTTO ぞっと - a Supernatural Folktale is a multi-sensory theatrical experience in which audience members will seek to help three generations of women from a Japanese American family as they embark on a journey that asks them to dig deep into the layers of their family history in Denver. On this journey, audiences will encounter liminal and imaginative spaces inhabited by yokai and obake (Japanese supernatural spirits and demons).

ZOTTO will take place in the creatively transformed offices of the second level of Sakura Square in Denver. Sakura Square’s historical significance to the Japanese American community serves as the ideal location for this production as the audience’s journey will touch on issues of racism and gentrification as well as WWII incarceration, redlining, and resettlement. ZOTTO lifts up the importance and value of each encounter, the resilience and joy in collective community healing, and the lasting impact of the choices we make.

ZOTTO is truly a collaborative production with community partners Bonfils Stanton Foundation Sakura Foundation, Mile High JACL and Sakura Square. With more than 20 local creatives attached to the project, every element of the experience is the result of collective effort, utilizing a devised theatre model. Many of the ZOTTO artists are frequent Japanese Arts Network collaborators such as filmmaker Bruce Tetsuya, fashion designer Kotomi Yoshida and calligraphy muralist Bakemono0504.

Audiences will have the opportunity to directly explore the set, interact with the performers and experience this modern folktale through all five senses. Through the ZOTTO experience, audiences will discover hidden secrets and engage with interactive elements that ask them to consider the relationship between intention and impact.

ZOTTO will be shared with test audiences of immersive creatives from across the country at the Denver Immersive Gathering the first weekend of November and will have its world premier to the public on November 18.

ZOTTO Cast

(Clockwise from upper left): Nicole Dietze, Sarah Hirose, Min Kyung (Cecillia) Kim, Tiffany Ogburn, Charlotte Quinn and Joyce Yuriko Cole.

ZOTTO will journey through subjects of the Japanese American incarceration camps, resettlement, and the search for healing. Akemi Tsutsui-Kunitake’s ink illustrations will be found throughout the experience.

Get tickets at ja-ne.wellattended.com/ events/zotto

For more information, visit zottofolk.com or e-mail info@zotofolk.com