Japanese Artist, Ayomi Yoshida Debuts Exhibition for Asia Society Texas Center

Asia Society Texas Center Showcases Texas Debut of Third-Generation Female Artist, Ayomi Yoshida

 Exhibition Being Built by 40-Member International Team

Japanese artist Ayomi Yoshida made her Texas debut on July 28 in an exhibition she designed specifically for Asia Society Texas Center (ASTC) located on 1370 Southmore Blvd.

The large-scale installation will focus on Yoshida’s investigations of time, life cycles in nature, and sensory memory. It is being assembled over a two-week period by a 40-member team from Japan and the U.S., including students from four universities in Japan as well as local students from Rice University, University of Houston, and the Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

The exhibition will feature video projections, vinyl applications on glass, hand-carved and painted wall installations, and a scrim stretching across a portion of the Center’s Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall, complemented by intricate silkscreen-printed paper suspensions hung from the vaulted ceiling.

The installation will evoke a pool with flowers falling into it from above and is an indoor corollary to the Center’s Elkins Foundation Water Garden, which had a direct influence on Yoshida’s creation. Inspired by ASTC’s award-winning architecture by acclaimed Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, the exhibition will extend into the North Gallery and will invite Houstonians to explore the entire first floor of the museum and the Water Garden.

“As a former architecture student, Yoshida has an exceptional understanding of Yoshio Taniguchi’s architectural practice, which uniquely situates her to respond to his design of our facility,” said Bridget Bray, the Center’s Nancy C. Allen Curator and Director of Exhibitions. 

As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey approaches, the installation also explores the theme of water as both a source of life and a source of destruction, both in Houston (Hurricanes Harvey and Ike) and in Japan (the recent flooding and the 2011 tsunami).

Yoshida is the granddaughter of renowned painter and woodblock printer Hiroshi Yoshida, widely considered a master of the shin-hanga style. He, along with her grandmother Fujio, father Hodaka, and mother Chizuko are part of a dynastic artistic family reaching back to the 1800’s, making Ayomi Yoshida a rarity: a third-generation female artist in a male-dominated field.

“Yoshida is expanding her family’s legacy by branching out from traditional woodblock printing into large-scale three-dimensional installations that incorporate prints to achieve dramatic transformations of space,” said Bray.

Yoshida’s work has been featured globally, including in exhibitions at the British Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Asian Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

Her works are held in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Freer|Sackler, British Museum, Detroit Institute of Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, and the Portland Art Museum.

MORE INFORMATION:

• Exhibition dates: Through Sunday, January 13, 2019
• Admission: Free and open to the public
• Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 11 am–6 pm; Saturday–Sunday, 10 am–6 pm

photos courtesy of Ayomi Yoshida