Modern Abstractions: Japanese Prints from the Joy and Timothy Light Collection

Modern Abstractions: Japanese Prints from the Joy and Timothy Light Collection

The Kalamazoo Institute of Arts

December 2020 – March 7, 2021

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The year 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Joy Light Gallery of Asian Art. Modern Abstractions: Japanese Prints from the Joy and Timothy Light Collection is a celebration of our benefactors contributions to the KIA ‘s efforts to illuminate the significant cultural impact of the Arts of East Asia.

This unique exhibition examines modern Japanese printmakers of the 1970s and 1980s to reveal abstraction as a form of artistic experimentation and a means of global conversation.

Well-known printmasters like Toko Shinoda, Iwami Reika, Tesuro Sawada, and Fumio Tomita will be on view, alongside other master printmakers. Drawn from the extensive holdings of the Joy and Timothy Light Collection, these works present avant garde, dynamic, and precise techniques in Japanese printmaking, while also shedding light on a unique area of their collection.

This special selection of works on paper demonstrates how printmakers in Japan were on the pulse of “and even distinguished themselves within “global dialogues and happenings/practices surrounding abstract art.