NEW YORK, NY.- In celebration of Ippodo Gallery’s 15 year anniversary, Terumasa Ikeda’s first overseas solo exhibition, that will end tomorrow, was held at the gallery. Coinciding with Asia Week 2023, TERUMASA IKEDA: IRIDESCENT LACQUER is an unveiling of the artist’s signature alluring raden lacquerware. Since Japan’s first encounter with the cultures of Europe some 500 years ago, lacquer has become representative of the great treasures the archipelago has to offer the world and a long-favored subject of international trade. Thus, “lacquer” has become synonymous with “Japan.” Extracted from trees and mildly processed, lacquer is a varnish applied to the exterior surface of an object, forming a lustrous film with a mes- merizing sense of depth. Beyond its beauty, lacquer is a highly sustainable product completely devoid of harmful additives that prove toxic to the planet’s environment.

Terumasa Ikeda (born 1987) is an innovative lacquer art- ist who fabricates shimmering mother-of-pearl designs in- grained into the surface of wood in the raden technique. Ikeda’s idea is strikingly modern; the high-tech motifs that transform the surface into an electronic interface bridge the worlds of classical and contemporary lacquer. As if em- anating luminescence from within, Ikeda’s works have be- come highly prized for the artist’s most technologically advanced method, and never before have his works been available for direct purchase by audiences outside of Japan.

Ikeda, who earned his B.A. and M.A. from the Kanazawa College of Art, was drawn to the city as Kanazawa is considered the historical hub for lacquerware in Japan. Under the tutelage of lacquer master Shinya Yamamura, Ikeda trained in the mother-of-pearl inlay technique’s traditional and highly technical aspects. As a student, Ikeda’s experiences in Nepal fostered a deep appreciation for craftsmanship and everyday handmade objects. The vibrant and complex wooden archi- tecture and the culture of making that included every generation of the family from elder to child sparked inspiration inside Ikeda. The Nepalese encounter pushed Ikeda to question the parameters of craftsmanship as an age-old method of interpersonal communication. In this modern day, is there a shared visual language? The visual language of raden, which began as ornamentation and opulent treasures part of the Shosoin Repository in the 8th century, historically projected images of kachōfugetsu, “the beauties of nature.”

Though Arabic numerals are by no means a modern invention, Ikeda’s iridescent depictions against the infinitely deep black uru- shi lacquer immediately evoke a mental image of a computer screen or the internationally iconic title sequence from the film “The Matrix” (1999). Ikeda’s objects—ceremonial tea utensils, treasure boxes, and precious containers—push to refashion the visual language of raden to include the electronic realm of data that now dominates the globalized world. Ikeda’s meticulous pro- cess took eight years to develop: from native Japanese kiso hino- ki cypress, Ikeda sculpts and refines the shape until the thin walls allow for the passage of light. Encased within black urushi lac- quer, the grain of the kiso hinoki is wholly saturated and densified. Whereas the interior is finished with coats of gold in the maki-e style, Ikeda’s true innovative artisanship is in his treatment of the nacre-inlaid surface. Designed by hand and then interpreted digitally with a computer program as a stencil, Ikeda’s iconic numerical pattern is intricately engraved from the prepared abalone shell using a laser cutter. Placing the perforated shell into water, Ikeda uses ultrasonic waves to free the glyphs, which are then set onto the adhesive lacquer by hand. The result is a futuristic miyabi artwork—eternal, never tarnishing, mesmerizing—that invites viewers to enter the virtual world through a conventional medium that has been cherished and coveted for more than a millennium.

Committed to creating shared craft- and Japanese culture-oriented experiences, Ippodo Gallery has worked directly with over 200 artists and held thousands of exhibitions over three decades. Keiko Aono founded Ippodo Gallery Tokyo in 1996, with two locations in the heart of Ginza and the residential area of Gotenyama. Daughter Shoko Aono opened Ip- podo Gallery in New York in 2008, forging new connections with a global audience. Since then, she continues to witness the timeless cross-cultural impact of Japanese kogei art that transcends language.