The University Art Gallery, Sonoma State University, is pleased to announce an exhibition of prints, drawings and paintings by Masami Teraoka, an artist originally from Japan whose work pays homage to - and critiques - the traditions of both Japanese and European art.
Titled "Drawing on the Past/The Art of Masami Teraoka," the exhibition opens to the public on Thursday, Sept. 6 with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m., and remains on view through Sunday, Oct. 14.
"Weaving news media, reality, fantasy, visionary, imaginary and otherworldly reality with humor, line, form and color, commentary, topicality, and a high level of aesthetics is a challenge." says the artist. "I try to focus on current issues articulated on a metaphorical level rather than recreating a mere copy of reality."
Teraoka has painted about issues from gay marriage, American style confessions on TV talk shows, recent priests' confessions, politics, international affairs, censorship, invasion of privacy, gender, sexual preference, religious discrimination, the Impeachment Trial, Viagra, and AIDS to air and water pollution, toxic shock syndrome and American fast food and culture invading the world.
To tackle these contemporary issues, he reached into the past, basing his early paintings on Japanese Ukiyo-e or wood block prints. His current work has taken another direction, melding western aesthetics, religious and iconic themes from Renaissance.
Selected primarily from a private collection in Palo Alto, Drawing on the Past features more than 20 of Teraoka's best known watercolors, screenprints, and woodblock prints alongside a number of original 18th and 19th century ukiyo-e prints by such masters as Katsuchika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
In addition, the exhibition includes several large paintings, inspired in part by Renaissance compositions and recently shown at the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco.
On Sept. 29, Masami Teraoka visits the University Art Gallery to discuss his work in conversation with Bay Area critic and writer Alison Bing. The program is free and open to the public.
Masami Teraoka was born in Onomichi, Japan, in 1936. He moved to Los Angeles in 1961, where he received his B.A. and M.F.A. from the Otis Art Institute. He currently lives and works in Hawaii.
Teraoka's work has been exhibited internationally and is in major private and public collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Walker Art Center. For further information on the artist, visit http://www.lava.net/~artbeat/.
The University Art Gallery is open to the public 11 am to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Friday, and noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free and the Gallery is wheelchair accessible. A daily parking permit ($2.50) is required weekdays until 10 p.m.; parking on weekends is free.
For more information or other press materials, please call (707) 664-2295.
ABOVE, Los Angeles Sushi Ghost Tales/Fish Woman and the Artist,1979 watercolor on paper.
