2018 Ronin-Globus Artist-in-Residence Program Press Packet

RONIN GLOBUS artist-in-residence program Press Packet 2018

A Moonlight Night.

Asako Iwasawa. 40” x 29”. Acrylic on Canvas.

2018 PARTICIPANTS Artist-in-residence Asako Iwasawa

First runner up Ryo Shinagawa

Finalists

Kei Kato Kotaro Isobe Mitsuki Noguchi Megumi Yamaura Ronin Gallery and Globus Washitsu are pleased to announce that Asako Iwasawa has been selected as the winner of the 2018 Ronin|Globus Artist-in-Residence Program. The program judges were enchanted by Iwasawa’s lush paintings. In her work, Iwasawa looks beyond the physical reality of the natural world and portrays the spirit of nature. As she treads the boundary between imagination and landscape, she challenges her viewers’ sense of place.

As artist-in-residence, she will be the featured artist in Ronin Gallery’s summer exhibition, Contemporary Talents of Japan: Kacho Fugetsu. In addition, she will receive upto-one-month stay at Globus Washitsu in central Manhattan, a stipend, and transportation between Tokyo and NYC. During her time in New York, Asako Iwasawa will also be invited to use Brooklyn Botanic Garden as inspiration and as an en plein air studio. Ryo Shinagawa was named first runner up, and several of his works will also be featured in the exhibition.

Iwasawa will be in New York in July and a reception for the artist will be held by Ronin Gallery. In addition, a portion of the proceeds raised by this year’s program will go to Brooklyn Botanic Garden.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM The annual Ronin|Globus Artist-in-Residence Program seeks to stimulate crosscultural dialogue through Japan’s vanguard of visual art while providing the opportunity for emerging and mid-career Japanese visual artists to live, work, and exhibit in New York City.

PRESS CONTACT For additional information or high resolution images, please contact David Libertson.

E: dtl@roningallery.com T: 212.688.0188

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PROGRAM SPONSORS Ronin Gallery

The Ronin Gallery is the leading family-owned Japanese and East Asian art gallery in New York City. It is home to the largest private collection of 17th-21st century Japanese prints for sale in the United States, as well as many works by Japan’s and East Asia’s contemporary talents. For more information about the gallery and to access the gallery’s exhibits, visit: www.roningallery.com/

Globus Family The

Globus

Family

has

long

been

associated

with

cultural

interchange

between Japan and United States. They have sponsored events at eminent institutions including Japan Society and Asia Society. Their scope spans dance, theater, cinema, art, craft, and performance groups. Globus Washitsu is a venue to spark the expression, knowledge, and wonderment that arise from dialogue between Japan and the United States. For more information, visit: www.nycwashitsu.com/

MEDIA SPONSOR Spoon & Tamago

Spoon & Tamago is a Japanese arts and culture blog that spans the categories of fine art and architecture, to product and graphic design. It was founded by Johnny Strategy in 2007 as a means of attracting international attention to the Japanese art and design scene, and is currently based out of New York City and Tokyo. For more information, visit: www.spoon-tamago.com/

CHARITABLE SPONSOR Brooklyn Botanic Garden

Brooklyn Botanic Garden is an urban botanic garden that connects people to the world of plants, fostering delight and curiosity while inspiring an appreciation and sense of stewardship of the environment. In the Garden, in its community, and well beyond, BBG inspires people of all ages through the conservation, display, and enjoyment of plants; with educational programs that emphasize learning by doing; and with research focused on understanding and conserving regional plants and plant communities.

ACADEMIC SPONSOR Kyoto University of Art and Design

Founded in 1977, Kyoto University of Art and Design is one of the leading art and design universities in Japan. The university has 13 departments and covers almost all areas of art and design, excluding the field of music. In the school’s 40 years of history, many graduates have gone on and actively contributed to their areas of art and design both in and outside of Japan. Notable alumni of the Department of Fine and Applied Arts include Aiko Miyanaga, Taro Yamamoto, Daisuke Ohba, among others.

For more information visit: http://www.kyoto-art.ac.jp/en/

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Asako Iwasawa

2018 Ronin | Globus Artist-in-residence

Asako Iwasawa is a contemporary Japanese painter from Akabane, Tokyo. She graduated from Tama Art University’s Textile Design course before managing Design Studio Himiko. She later discovered a passion for kimono design and worked at the batik studio Kimono Studio Dye Laboratory. Iwasawa spent 10 years living as a farmer in the countryside, indulging her love for nature. Though she returned to the city, she brought the vivid world of insects, plants, and natural beauty back with her.

Breeze from Morning. 29”x80”. Acrylic on Canvas.

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In her words, “nature is full of thrills and wonders…it impresses me to no end and fuels my imagination...I aspire to portray the mysterious shapes and colors of nature, what we see and don’t see.” Iwasawa looks beyond the physical reality of the natural world and portrays the spirit of nature in her paintings. As she treads the boundary between imagination and landscape, she challenges her viewers’ sense of place. She received an honorable mention in the 2017 Ronin | Globus Artist-in-Residence program.

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Sleep Butterfly. 40”x29”. Acrylic on Canvas.

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A Moonlight Night. 40”x29”. Acrylic on Canvas.

Breeze from Paradise. 40”x116”. Acrylic on Canvas.

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FIRST RUNNER UP

Waterstream and Chrysanthemum 14.7” x 9.8”.

Natural pigments, ink, Gofun, silver, glue, Japanese paper on wood

Ryo Shinagawa “I create pictures composed in today’s Japan by discovering new meaning within the styles of traditional Japanese painting, such as the one-stroke sketch of a flower that is a part of the culture of the fude ink brush.”

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FINALISTS

A Gift after the Rain.

Traces of time: Flowers & Bees.

Mitsuki Noguchi. 39” × 39”.

Megumi Yamaura. 16.14” × 10.75”.

Takizakura.

biotop.

Kei Kato. 46” x 36”.

Kotaro Isobe. 13.11” × 9.52”.

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Special Thanks JUDGES Yukie Kamiya

Kouji Hayashi

Tan Boon Hui

Hiroko Ishinabe

Katsura Yamaguchi

Everett Brown

Director of the Japan Society Gallery

Director of the Asia Society Museum

Senior vice president & international director of Japanese and Korean Art at Christie’s New York

Kimiko Lupfer

Member, Board of Trustees at Brooklyn Botanic Garden Corporation

Miwako Tezuka

Manager of the Sato Sakura Museum

Founder of the One Piece Club

Japanese culture promoter, writer, and photographer

Oz Keisuke Yamaguchi

2016 Ronin | Globus Artist-in-Residence

Kyoko Sato

Independent Curator, Art Consultant

Consulting curator for Reversible Destiny Foundation, Co-director of PoNJA-GenKon

Joji Mita

Johnny Strategy

2017 Ronin | Globus Artist-in-Residence

Founder & editor of Spoon & Tamago Japanese arts and culture blog

Yasuko Harris

Former gallery director at Honjo Gallery in Tokyo, Japan

Nachi Das

Art collector & capital market executive

Mary Ann Roos

Art collector and philanthropist

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AMBASSADORS

Global Art Management Advisor

Katsutoshi Yuasa Akiyo Yagyu

Project manager of Artothèque

Noburu Tsubaki

Regional director of Setouchi Intl Art Festival, Contemporary artist, professor

RONIN GALLERY

212.688.0188 RoninGallery.com Press Contact: David Libertson DTL@Roningallery.com

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