ECHIKO OHIRA: WORKS IN PAPER Opening Reception

When:
September 7, 2018 @ 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
2018-09-07T18:00:00-07:00
2018-09-07T21:00:00-07:00
Where:
Palos Verdes Art Center
5504 Crestridge Rd
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
USA
Cost:
Free
ECHIKO OHIRA: WORKS IN PAPER
September 7 – October 14
Opening Reception, Sept. 7, 6-9pm. Free.
 Taiko drum performance 7:30pm

Palos Verdes Art Center announces ECHIKO OHIRA: WORKS IN PAPER, opening September 7 with an artist reception open to the public 6 to 9pm.
“Echiko Ohira works exclusively with paper to create her primal sculptural forms. In Japan there is a revered, ancient tradition of paper-based art such as origami (the art of folded paper) that depends upon the expertise of master artisans who specialize in hand-making paper in small, custom-formulated batches. Although paper objects and paper-making are not much recognized in the West as art forms (just as the plant-based arts of bonsai and flower arranging are not regarded as much more than polite hobbies in the West), paper-related pursuits are highly venerated as aesthetic attainments in Japanese culture. Los Angeles-based Ohira creates within that Japanese tradition that recognizes paper as an expressive three-dimensional medium. … Ohira’s sculptural artworks echo (but never imitate) natural biomorphic forms – bird nests, marine life, flowers, human and animal torsos, breasts, and internal organs – and she displays them with a nearly ceremonial formality, positioned at viewer eye-level on the wall or directly on the floor (and almost never on a pedestal or within a vitrine); she prefers the intimacy and immediacy of her objects sharing the space with the viewer, and vice versa. Her sculptures always engage large kraft paper sheets, cut from wholesale-purchased rolls, which she folds, pleats, bundles, twists, or coils into biomorphic shapes. The resultant objects may be intimate in size – capable of being held in the arms, like a baby – or be large enough to intimidate any notion of moving them at all. In their biomorphic typology and sensual use of paper, Ohira’s sculptures virtually seethe with the energy of living creatures.” – Howard Fox

Echiko Ohira was born and educated in Japan and currently lives and works in the Los Angeles area. Her work is collected by East and West Cultural Center, Tokyo; Japan Nippon Steel Corporation, L.A, CA; Urawa City Hall, Saitama, Japan, and many private collections globally.
Refreshments from the food truck Goshen will be available at the opening reception.
Since 1931, the Palos Verdes Art Center, a non-profit 501(c)3 community visual arts organization, has inspired “adults and children to create, appreciate, and celebrate art.”  The 2018 Palos Verdes Dream House Raffle proceeds help fund exhibition, education, and outreach programs making visual arts available, accessible and affordable. 

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