Events

Time & Location

May 12- July 28

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center Gallery (Kalamazoo, MI)

About

Kalamazoo Book Arts Center will host a Woodblock Prints Exhibition by Yoshisuke Funasaka and Mary Brodbeck.

Kalamazoo artist Mary Brodbeck studied woodblock printmaking in Tokyo from Yoshisuke Funasaka via a five-month-long fellowship from the Japanese government in 1998. This exhibition, a culmination of 25 years of cross-cultural exchange and relationship, will feature both artists’ use of the historic, 17th century Japanese woodblock technique. Funasaka works in abstract motifs. Brodbeck’s work depicts nature scenes, primarily of the Great Lakes watershed region.

Yoshisuke Funasaka is a Tokyo-based woodblock and silkscreen printmaker best known for his colorful, repeated depictions on various themes. He has taught the traditional methods of Japanese woodblock printmaking at Asahi Culture Center in Tokyo since the 1970’s. Over the years, he has had several foreign students (including Kalamazoo artist, Mary Brodbeck) that sought out his expertise in the Japanese woodblock methods, as well as his knowledge on baren-making – the handheld burnishing tool special to the woodblock process. In addition to teaching baren-making in the Tokyo area, he has taught this at universities in Thailand and Taiwan. Funasaka’s prints are in numerous museums worldwide.

For more information visit Kalamazoo Book Arts Center website.

This event is supported through the JFNY Education Grant.