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VIRTUAL SENIOR SHOW: Akane Kaneko

akane-kaneko
Tue, Nov 9, 2021, 12:00 am to Fri, Dec 31, 2021, 12:00 pm

VIRTUAL SENIOR SHOW: Akane Kaneko

Akane Kaneko left her hometown, Japan, during her childhood. As she continued to live abroad, she reaffirmed the unique culture of Japan, and she decided to love, express, and spread the culture of her country more: it became the axis of her artistic activities. Japonisme, the movement in France during the 1980s, was a Western art movement that incorporated Japanese elements.  Akane goes beyond that—regardless of medium, her work contains the atmosphere of four seasons or/and the traditional culture of Japan. Hopefully the viewers can feel "Japan" even a little.

akane-kaneko 1

Title: "Beginning of Summer"
Medium: Acrylic painting on paper
Year: 2021
Description: Painted a sky that began to deepen its blue, with overgrown trees to signal the beginning of summer. The seasonal changes in Japan are very delicate, and I often feel the signs from the natural world such as the sky and the plants.

 

 

akane-kaneko 2

 

Title: "End of the Rain"
Medium: Acrylic painting on paper
Year: 2021
Description: During the rainy season, there will be no sunny days for almost more than a month, but on this day the sun shined through the rain clouds. While I thought it was rare, I was grateful for the sunlight and so painted it.

 

akane-kaneko 3

Title: "Firefly"
Medium: Nikon D5300
Year:2020
Description: Captured some sense of nostalgia, used slow shutter speed to photograph countless lanterns decorated with Japanese maple trees to express the firefly that I couldn’t see during this summer because of the self-quarantine.

 

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Title: "Winter"
Medium: Nikon D5300
Year: 2020
Description: Tried to capture the unique atmosphere/mood, loneliness, and transparency of winter air in Japan.

 

akane-kaneko 5

Title: "Pleasure"
Medium: Nikon D5300
Year:2021
Description: By the time the state of emergency was lifted, spring had arrived, the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, and the children were running around happily. I felt hope for the day when the pandemic would end.

 

akane-kaneko 6

Title: "Daydreaming”
Medium: Digital paint & collage on Photoshop
Year:2021
Description: An abstract painting inspired by Nihonga. (Japanese painting) Added the texture of tatami—a traditional rush flooring—and wood that Japanese people are familiar with.

 

akane-kaneko 7

Title: "A Kimono Woman with a Dog"
Medium: Digital paint on Photoshop
Year: 2021
Description: Homage of Woman with a Parasol by Claude Monet. During the 1860s, in France where Japonism was popular, paintings incorporating Japanese elements became popular. I changed a woman's white parasol to a traditional Japanese umbrella, changed clothes into a kimono, and also drew a Shiba Inu dog beside the woman.

 

akane-kaneko 8

Title: "Camellia"
Medium: Digital paint on Photoshop
Year: 2021
Description: Homage of The Flower (series of paintings) by Alphonse Mucha. This painting is a fusion of Bijin-ga (a traditional Japanese painting with the motif of so-called female beauty) and Mucha's paintings. Camellia is a familiar flower in Japan.