TANIOKA SHIGEO & TANIOKA AIKO
Among the artists active today, the Taniokas, Shigeo and Aiko, are the preeminent bamboo art couple. Each experienced a profound encounter with bamboo artworks and were moved to dedicate their lives to the medium. Each found their way to the same studio, that of the famous Tanabe family of Osaka, where Shigeo apprenticed with Tanabe Chikuunsai II for nine years and Aiko studied under Tanabe Chikuunsai III for fifteen. Aiko entered the Tanabe studio in 1985, shortly after Shigeo had left to become an independent artist. They met after Aiko’s studiomates told her about a talented former student who happened to live nearby. The artists of the Tanabe Chikuunsai lineage are known for their technical mastery, refined taste, and for adding highly sophisticated sculptural qualities to flower vessel forms. Shigeo and Aiko are inheritors of this tradition. Tanioka Shigeo is one of the most creative and least productive bamboo artists of his generation. It is not unusual for artists to work in series and create objects of varying scale and complexity. However, every piece Shigeo makes is a major piece — starting from an original idea and requiring months of hands - on time. He is only able to produce two to three works in a year, but each are marvels of invention and artistry. Shigeo’s impeccably finished sculptural artworks often push the limits of, but do not fully abandon, bamboo art’s tradition of flower baskets and trays. Enfolding is classic Shigeo. A smooth and sleek vessel form that fully engages Modernist sculptural ideas, it highlights the beauty of the very special bamboo it is made from. Ninety strips cut from two - century old, small - diameter hobi bamboo, showing the rich coloration that only long exposure to hearth fire smoke can imbue, are perfectly matched in graduating width and length to achieve an elegant, curving taper. The varying array of the bamboo’s nodes and Shigeo’s irregular placement of rattan ties add a piquant cadence to the sensual contours of the body.
3
This exhibition highlights a new development of Shigeo’s, an artwork that breaks with contained form. Bond is comprised of a single band of okamezasa bamboo culms that moves through itself twice, pushing and pulling the viewer’s eye through space in the process. Each piece of bamboo must be individually bent over flame into its final shape, but while they align and act as one, each culm’s slight variability allows for the graceful pulsing of the band. From a technical standpoint this is astounding, but it is technique at the service of an extraordinary aesthetic vision. Tanioka Aiko’s work is firmly embedded in the Kansai tradition and the shared studio environment in which she sat and worked long hours for the Tanabe family. Perhaps the focus required by bamboo art, along with the traditional studio hierarchy, makes for a quiet, circumspect climate, but I find it hard to resist imagining the artists talking through technical problems and the aesthetic possibilities of the baskets they are working on. Over the course of fifteen years, Aiko mastered many of the Tanabe family techniques, and much of her body of work focused on introducing an original twist or personal refinements of the Tanabe style of vessels, such as in Never Again, Spring Rain, and Rice Plants Swaying in the Breeze. Extraordinarily beautiful and uniquely Aiko’s is the tray entitled Flight. Made of the most luscious black bamboo I have seen in a very long time, every feature of the design and execution is masterful. Four rows of rattan stitching move from the handle outward to the tray edge, and in each row she scales up the rattan to maintain harmony of proportions. Her most ambitious artwork in this exhibition, Welcome Rain, nods to the artist’s mentors and influences but has a lightness of touch that is Aiko’s alone, showing that artistic individuality, regional tradition, and an awareness of history can inform one another beautifully. n
4
Steven Halvorsen, 2017
5
6
ARTIST STATEMENT Bamboo was everywhere when I was a child. A chance encounter with Tanabe Chikuunsai III led me to enter into the world of bamboo art. This medium gives me joy and challenges me. I enjoy splitting bamboo because I can feel the sense of nothingness and emptiness in doing it. Bamboo is both delicate and powerful. It is not a tame material to shape according to my will. It gives me joy when my will and the will of the bamboo fit together nicely. I hope to amplify the beauty of bamboo through my art. n
Tanioka Aiko, 2017
TA NI O K A A IK O Spring Rain, 2010,15.25 Ă— 7.5 Ă— 7.5 inches
7
ARTIST STATEMENT I split a culm of bamboo for the first time when I was twenty - five. At that moment, I knew that this would become my lifelong obsession. I am captivated by the characteristics specific to bamboo. I love the nodes and roundness. I enjoy working with a variety of different bamboos. Over a period of forty - three years, I have tried to bring to life the unique charm of bamboo in my work. I sometimes find myself wondering if I will ever make the piece with which I can be fully satisfied. I dream that, someday, I will. n
Tanioka Shigeo, 2017
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Wind Through Bamboo Forest, 2014, 21 Ă— 8 Ă— 6.25 inches
8
Early Autumn, 2016, 26 × 15 × 8 inches
9
10
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Bond, 2014, 7.5 x 26 × 13.5 inches
12
TA NI O K A A IK O Flight, 2002, 3 × 16 × 12.75 inches
14
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Heart of the Flower, 2016,10.5 × 16.5 × 16.5 inches
16
TA NI O K A A IK O Springtime Flower Basket, 2002, 5.25 × 16 × 16 inches
18
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Cresting Wave, 2015, 10 × 25.5 × 9.5 inches
20
TA NI O K A A IK O Rice Plants Swaying in the Breeze, 2003, 13 × 7.25 × 7.25 inches
TA NI O K A A IK O Never Again, 2004, 12 × 6 × 6 inches
21
22
TA NI O K A A IK O Perception, 2014, 5.5 × 28.5 × 5.25 inches
24
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Moon Over a Mountain, 2014, 8.5 × 30 × 7.5 inches
26
27
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Rolling Waves, 2015, 8.25 × 17.5 × 10 inches
28
TA NI O K A A IK O Abundance, 2010, 6.75 × 15 × 15 inches
3030
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Meteor, 2017, 6 × 22 × 13.5 inches
32
TA NI O K A A IK O Road to Nara, 2009, 6.5 × 11.25 × 11.25 inches
34
TA NI O K A A IK O Swirling Current, 2007, 7.5 × 15.5 × 15.5 inches
36
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Enfolding, 2015, 6.75 × 24.5 × 8 inches
38
TA NI O K A A IK O Welcome Rain, 2010, 6 × 29.5 × 6.5 inches
40
TA NI O K A S HI G E O Robe of the Celestial Maiden, 2017, 8.5 × 44.5 × 18 inches
TANIOKA SHIGEO 1949
Born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan
1974
Apprenticed to Tanabe Chikuunsai II for 10 years
1990
Silver Award, Itami Craft Arts Exhibition
1991
Admitted to Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition for the first time
1992
City Council Award, 46th Sakai City Art Exhibition
1994
Special Award, Wood & Lacquer Craft Arts Exhibition
1996
Became a full member of Japan Traditional Craft Arts Association
1997
Grand Prize, Osaka Prefecture Craft Arts Exhibition
1998
Achievement Award, Asahi Contemporary Craft Arts Exhibition
1999
Grand Prize, Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition, Kinki region
Beyond the Millennium, Museum of Kyoto
Bamboo Masterworks, Asia Society, New York 2001
President’s Award, Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition
2002
The Next Generation, University of Arkansas, Little Rock
2003
Bamboo Masterworks, Oita Art Museum (travelled to 5 other venues in Japan)
Best Bamboo Baskets:The Cotsen Collection, Long House Reserve, East Hampton, NY
2004
Winner of 3rd Cotsen Bamboo Prize
2005
Weavers of Wonder, Naples Museum, FL
2006
Power & Delicacy, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Bamboo Art, Grinnell College, Iowa Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Art, Chicago Cultural Center, IL Exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Nara Education Committee Prize, Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition, Kinki region
2007
Masters of Bamboo, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
2011
The Many Shapes of Bamboo Art V, Oita City Museum
2012
Modern Twist, Bellevue Arts Museum, WA (traveled to12 other venues)
2017
Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
COL LEC TIONS Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA Sakai City Museum, Japan Craft Arts Hall, Shiga, Japan
TANIOKA AIKO 1947
Born in Chiba Prefecture, Japan
1985
Apprenticed with Tanabe Chikuunsai III for 15 years
2000
Admitted to International Craft Exhibition at Itami
2002
The Next Generation, University of Arkansas, Little Rock
Chairman’s Prize, Sakai City Exhibition Osaka Education Committee Prize, Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition, Kinki region 2003
Chairman’s Prize, Shinbi Craft Arts Exhibition
2004
Hiramatsu Prize, Osaka Craft Arts Exhibition
2005
Weavers of Wonder, Naples Museum, FL Sakai City Mayor’s Prize, Sakai City Exhibition Nara Education Committee Prize, Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition, Kinki region
2006
Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Art, Grinnell College, IA Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Art, Chicago Cultural Center, IL
2008
Admitted to Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition
2010
A Different Sensitivity: Women in Bamboo Art, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Three-person exhibition, Kizan Gallery, Tokyo
2011
The Many Shapes of Bamboo Art V, Oita City Museum
2012
Modern Twist, Bellevue Arts Museum, WA (traveled to 12 other venues)
2016
Discovering Japanese Bamboo Art: The Rusty & Ann Harrison Collection, Herron School of Art & Design, Indianapolis, IN
COL LEC TIONS Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
1601 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 505.984.1387 taimodern.com