Shigeki Kuroda - born 1953

Contemporary Japanese Prints
The Reflection, 1984
copyright Shigeki Kuroda

The art of Shigeki Kuroda reflects current times. His themes deal with the fundamental characteristics of today's modern society. Their presentation as well as motifs, composition and techniques, however, stem from Japanese traditions.

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In this way, Shigeki Kuroda emerged not only in leading circles of contemporary Japanese artists, but also among internationally recognized artists. Today his works have an renowned reputation worldwide.

From Tradition to the Modern

Shigeki Kuroda was born in 1953 in Yokohama in the Kanagawa Prefecture, which by then was already a large metropolis with over one million people and a modern outlook. After the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, little of the city's history remained in buildings. The artist grew up in the midst of a conflict between tradition and the western modernization and industrialization. Against this backdrop, Kuroda deals with the change of the Japanese cultural identity in his works.

Though Japanese art education at the time mostly dealt with traditional art, Shigeki Kuroda enjoyed a modern education in art. In 1977 he began studying painting at Tama University of Art in Tokyo and finished with a Masters degree in 1979. He very quickly became active in exhibitions and developed broad interests.

In 1984 he traveled to the United States with a prestigious educational grant. A year later, he extended his stay and participated in an exchange program with an art foundation.

Style and Technique of Shigeki Kuroda

Ryohei Tanaka - Biography
copyright Shigeki Kuroda

For many years Shigeki Kuroda worked hard to develop his own style and to perfect it for his needs. From a technical point of view it is a mix of aquatints, drypoints and etchings, that he further developed using watercolors, pencil and Sumi-Indian ink. This variety of print materials allowed the artist to overcome contemporary artistic challenges, for example movement, specific light or spacial abstraction.

The prints from Shigeki Kuroda limit themselves to few sparingly applied colors. He only seldom uses colorful and bright accents. Otherwise the graphical element dominates, not the color, and the fine and detailed picture captivates.

Themes and Motifs

Shigeki Kuroda focused curiously on a single motif: a closed group of bicycle riders on continuous ride with umbrellas that can be repeated multiple times in the picture. There is a certain humor in this picture that is not uncommon, since he is dealing with life in traditional Japan. Kuroda, however, puts the riders in a context that confuses and has a certain surrealist effect.

Kuroda rips a distinctive motif from Japanese culture out of its normal surroundings and sets it in a new and strange setting - in a landscape or in a room formed by two dimensional scenery. As if he wanted to check, in which world the Japanese tradition still endures, Kuroda creates fictitious reality, real, but also abstract art. The reduction to a theme gives his collection the sense of a continual experiment that is carried out with human and artistic dedication.

Exhibitions and Awards

Koichi Sakamoto - Biography
Fun
copyright Shigeki Kuroda

• 1979 - Bradford International Print Biennial, England.
• 1979, 81 - Ljubljana International Print Biennial, Yugoslavia.
• 1979, 82, 85, 88 - Grenchen International Triennial, Switzerland.
• 1979, 82 - Miami Biennial, USA.
• 1979, 81, 83, 89, 91, 94 - Single Exhibition, Yoseido Gallery Tokyo, Japan.
• 1979 - Contemporary Japanese Print Makers, Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA.
• 1979 - 21. Contemporary Japanese Printmakers, Cleveland Museum of Art and Boston City Gallery, USA.
• 1980 - 21. Contemporary Japanese Print Makers, Washington, D.C., USA.
• 1981 - Asia International Art Exhibition, 2nd Place, Bangladesh.
• 1981 - Tolman Collection, Tokyo, Japan.
• 1982 - Central Museum of Tokyo, international exhibition, Award for Etching, Tokyo, Japan.
• 1982 - Yokohama-Shanghai Art Exchange Exhibition, Japan-China.
• 1982, 84, 85, 87, 91, 93 - Gilbert Luber Gallery, Philadelphia, USA.
• 1983 - The Japanese Print Since 1900, The British Museum, England.
• 1985, 86, 88, 91, 93 - Azuma Gallery, Seattle, USA.
• 1986 - Toyama Academy of Hanga Art, Toyama Prefectural Museum, Japan.
• 1988 - Grenchen International Triennial of Original Colored Graphic Invitational, Switzerland.
• 1989 - Contemporary Japanese Print Exhibition, Portland Museum, Oregon, USA.
• 1991 - Verne Collection, Cleveland, USA.
• 1992 - Yokohama-Constanta Cultural Exchange Exhibition, Constanta Museum, Romania.
• 1993 - Contemporary Japanese Prints by Modern Masters, Keith Alexander Gallery, Vancouver, Canada.
• 1993 - Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, California, USA.
• 1994 - Three person World Show, Iwasaki Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan.

Collections

Yoshisuke Funasaka - Résumé
The Big Wave, 1984
copyright Shigeki Kuroda

• Tochigi Prefectural Museum, Japan.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, USA.
• Art Institute of Chicago, USA.
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA.
• Art Gallery of the Citizens of Yokohama, Japan.
• Tama University of Fine Arts Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
• De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts, USA.
• Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan.
• Shanghai City Museum, Shanghai, China.
• Odessa Museum of Art, Ukraine.
• Yokota U.S. Air Force Officers' Wives Club, USA.
• The British Museum, England.
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

rp (June 2007)
(updated May 2009 by Dieter Wanczura)

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