This group exchange exhibition between artists from Japan and the United States is a continuation of an exhibition that started some 4 years ago titled, The 3rd. Crosscurrent U.S-Japan at Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, Yokohama, Japan. In Japan, Hideo lida and Izumi Tanabe were instrumental in organizing the Japanese artists. In the United States, Suguru Hiraide, Danny Bills, and Gustav Kopriva are the primary individuals responsible for organizing this current exhibition. In the United States, Redbud Arts Center in Houston and the Museum of Art at MSU Texas are hosting this exhibition. The dates for the Redbud exhibition are June 3-June 25, 2023.

 

The Japanese artists are Ryoichi Chuzenji, Hideo Iida, Chisato Ito, Toshiaki Kurahashi, Yasunari Nakagomi, Haruyo Nakanishi, Rie Sato, Izumi Tanabe, Tetsuro Tomonari, and Teryl Naomi Tsuda.

 

The artists from the United State are Danny Bills, Michael Collins, Daniel Calderon, Gary Goldberg, Steve Hilton, Suguru Hiraide, Shang-Yi Hua, Nancy Johnson, Sharon Kopriva, Yasuyo Maruyama, Mari Omori, Sherry Owens, Morgan Page, Catherine Prose, Hiroko Yoshimoto, and Erick Zambrano.

 

The ideas expressed by these artists are vast and diverse: the environment, humor, the land, sea, water & sky, cultural idiosyncrasies, the human form, color, scale, outsider art, and the physicality of using the hand in creating artwork.

 

We are excited about this exhibition and hope that this work fosters further cultural and artistic exchange. We are grateful to Redbud Arts Center and the Museum of Art at MSU Texas for presenting this exhibition. Because of the complexities of shipping large artwork internationally some of the pieces in this exhibition are smaller versions of work created by these artists. Please imagine some larger variations of these works particularly created by the Japanese artists.