Museum's First Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition 
Explores 21st Century Prints

One of the country's most extensive and rarely seen collections of contemporary Japanese prints will be on display at Phoenix Art Museum beginning this Sunday, May 24, 2008.   From traditional to abstract, Making Waves: Contemporary Japanese Prints from the Mary and William Way Collection explores the diversity found in 21st century Japanese prints and examines the techniques today's contemporary artists are using while recognizing a time-honored Japanese tradition.

Making Waves features contemporary prints, called hanga, in various techniques, such as lithograph, aquatint and dry point; by a diverse group of artists, including women and foreigners who settled in Japan.  Honoring the ukiyo-e tradition, the exhibition includes images of famous places and familiar themes as viewed through 21st- century eyes.

Making Waves kicks off Phoenix Art Museum's unprecedented summer showing of four extraordinary exhibits focused on Asian art from the 19th, 20th and 21st century.   Drawn from private collections and the Museum's own collected works, A Tradition Redefined, presents works that reveal the fundamental transformation of Asian art resulting from dynamic social, political and culture developments in the last three centuries.  

Exhibition Details: 
Making Waves will be on view in Phoenix Art Museum's Orme Lewis Gallery May 24 thru August 17, 2008.

Picture Credits
Ikai Tadashi, Blue Ocean, 2005
mezzotint
On loan from the Mary and William Way Collection
 
Iwami Reika, Spirit of Water, 2005
woodblock print
On loan from the Mary and William Way Collection
 
Oguri Tetsushi (Okusawa Taku), Tower and Red Moon, 2002
woodblock print
On loan from the Mary and William Way Collection
 
Jae Young Park, In the Place 1, 2003
woodblock print with water-based ink
On loan from the Mary and William Way Collection