View this post on Instagram
Featuring RU artist-in-residence Kaori Someya in the RU voices interview series đ€
Kaori Someya is a Japanese painter whose work explores contemporary female identity through traditional Japanese painting materials. Using mineral pigments, ink, and metal leaf on traditional Japanese paper, she creates decorative yet contemplative images of women that reflect the complexities of living in contemporary Japanese society. Her work is influenced by her mother, who made kimonos as a hobby, and her training in traditional mounting techniques, including byĆbu (folding screens) and kakejiku (hanging scrolls), during graduate school. Pattern and ornamental structures derived from kimono design often appear in her compositions, suggesting shifting and fleeting landscapes. Through the use of metal leaf and the uniquely Japanese technique known as urahaku (reverse metal leaf), she explores reflective light, invisible margins, and the subtle spatial relationship between artwork and viewer, drawing on Japanese perspectives on light and perception.
Kaoriâs solo exhibition at Ippodo Gallery in New York opens on September 10th 5-8 pm, through October 14th.
She exhibits 11 works, including two large-scale folding screens. Through themes of memory and the passage of time, the exhibition invites viewers into a meditative encounter with the shifting, reflected light of metal leaf.
