Three Aspects of Japanese Contemporary Art March 15, 2010

The Walsh Gallery at Seton Hall University is hosting a group exhibition of work by artists Hiroaki Miyayama, Yuichi Sawada, and Tomoo Arai. In the early 1990s, Hiroaki Miyayama, Yuichi Sawada, and Tomoo Arai, all spent time at Seton Hall as visiting artists, sponsored by the Japanese Government Overseas Program. They gave lectures and demonstrations at the university, met with American artists, and explored the contemporary art scene in New York. They have been invited back for an exhibition in the University’s Walsh Gallery to witness how their art has evolved in the intervening twenty years. Though all three artists graduated from Tsukuba University, their works seem utterly different. But they do have one important characteristic in common: from Mimayama’s intense etchings of flowers, to Sawada’s collagraphs which are meditations on pinetrees, and the abstract “neutral spaces” acrylic paintings by Arai, all are inspired by nature.

“Three Aspects of Japanese Contemporary Art” is co-sponsored by the Asian Studies Department in celebration of Japan Week which is April 6 through April 12, 2010. Through lectures, symposia, workshops, events and award, Japan Week demonstrates Seton Hall University's ongoing commitment to bringing together people of different races, religions, cultures, and ethnic backgrounds.