Nana Shiomi – A Fan with a View

$700*

*IFPDA Print Fair wall price. RRP is in GBP£. The equivalent price in US dollars may vary in line with the currency exchange rate on the day of purchase.

In A Fan with a View the icon of the fan is open, revealing pink blossoms. It hovers over a wooden stage. This stage is at the centre of Shiomi’s universe, a place for thought and to play out the cycle of life. In Japan, the cherry blossom is especially revered as a representation of spring. Once a year, the cherry blossoms burst from bud to full bloom, before gracefully dispersing in a cycle that has repeated over thousands of years as seasons change. Shiomi says, “This year’s flowers and next year’s blooms are different things. They are beautiful and fleeting, but here is a fan with a view of cherry blossom. You can open the fan to enjoy the view any time you wish.”

Nana Shiomi’s many images and print series are anchored by the repeated representation of an ochre stage.  This platform of receding linear space with a wood-grained red backdrop offers up a view of an icon, or symbol of an idea. She creates her work from the truth of things and the world’s wonders–nature, science, literature, and reflections on her own life as an artist. Her woodcut prints combine relief and intaglio water-based printmaking, rooted in the traditional Japanese ukiyo-e process. She prints by hand using a Baren, with the addition of her own experimental printing techniques and tools.

Shiomi studied at Tama Art University in Tokyo before moving to London in 1989, where she studied at the  Royal College of Art. A fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers since 2008, her work is held in public collections including: (UK) The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; British Museum, London; Embassy of Japan, London; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Oriental Museum, Durham University; Brunel University, Birmingham;  (USA) Bronx Museum of the Arts, NYC; Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York; (PL) National Museum, Gdansk; (JPN) MOMA, Wakayama; Tama Art University, Tokyo.