NEW YORK, NY.- Renowned for expertise in the fine art and craft of 20th-century Japan, Erik Thomsen Gallery announces its exhibition “Taisho Era Screens and Contemporary Lacquer by Yoshio Okada.” Timed to coincide with Asia Week in New York (March 10 through March 19), the exhibition focuses on new work by contemporary lacquer-artist Yoshio Okada (b. 1977) shown next to masterpieces of folding-screen painting from the 1920s and 1930s.

The son of a distinguished lacquerer, Yoshio Okada spent many years mastering this demanding craft and has recently achieved international recognition for his success in harnessing traditional practice to a contemporary aesthetic. For this first solo exhibition outside Japan, he has created a group of lacquer works centered around a box decorated with a design featuring a silver moon shining out amongst clouds in gold and shell.

Using the ancient kanshitsu technique, Okada made the box from layers of hemp cloth combined with the natural sap of the lacquer tree. By modeling the fabric before the lacquer hardened he was able to give the box an unusual profile, mimicking the curve of the heavens, that forms the perfect setting for the box’s glittering decoration. After painstakingly polishing the black-lacquer surface, he applied the moon-and-clouds design in shell inlay, silver foil, and the unique Japanese technique of maki-e, gold powder sprinkled onto wet lacquer. Okada’s work is highly sought after by private collectors and museums: a related box was acquired in 2013 by the Art Institute of Chicago and is currently on display in the Institute’s Japanese galleries.

To complement Okada’s miniaturist execution and refined design sense, the exhibition will feature a selection of folding screens from the early part of the 20th century, an area of Japanese art in which the Erik Thomsen Gallery is a market leader. The centerpiece will be a 24-foot-wide pair of folding screens by Kajino Genzan (1868 –1939), Flowers of the Four Seasons. For this painting, Kajino drew on the same tradition of decoration that inspires Okada today, contrasting gold leaf with rich mineral pigments to create an irresistibly rich floral cornucopia celebrating Japan’s love of the natural world and genius for horticulture.