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Faculty

Chair

Masami Imai

Associate Professor of EconomicsShow Bio and Photo

Faculty

Stephen Angle

Professor of PhilosophyShow Bio and Photo

Jonathan Best

Professor of Art HistoryShow Bio

Patrick Dowdey

Curator, Freeman Center for East Asian StudiesShow Bio

Mary Alice Haddad

Associate Professor of GovernmentShow Bio and Photo

William Johnston

Professor of HistoryShow Bio and Photo

Miri Nakamura

Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and LiteraturesShow Bio and Photo

Vera Schwarcz

Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian StudiesShow Bio and Photo

Keiji Shinohara

Artist in Residence, ArtShow Bio

Artist in Residence, Art
860-685-2816

Artist in Residence, East Asian Studies
860-685-2816

kshinohara@wesleyan.edu

CER

Fall 2013

ARST460 - 01
Intro To Sumi-e Painting

ARST461 - 01
Alternative Printmaking:

Spring 2014

ARST460 - 01
Intro To Sumi-e Painting

ARTS618 - 01
Japanese Woodblock Printmaking

Office Hours:

Spring 2011 By appointment kshinohara@wesleyan.edu ext. 2816 104 Art Studio South

Research Interests:

Keiji Shinohara was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. After 10 years as an apprentice to the renowned Keiichiro Uesugi in Kyoto, he became a Master Printmaker and moved to the United States. Shinohara's natural abstractions are printed on rice paper with water-based inks from woodblocks in the Ukiyo-e style - the traditional Japanese printmaking method dating to 600 CE. Keiji Shinohara has been a visiting artist at over 100 venues. He has received grants from the Japan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and his work is in many public collections, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University, and the Library of Congress.

Scholarly Keywords:

While living in Kyoto, I trained for ten years in the traditional Japanese woodblock printing style known as Ukiyo-e. The technical foundation for my artwork is rooted in that training, accompanied by techniques of contemporary western printmaking. Yet the imagery itself is very different from historical Ukiyo-e.
The process of printmaking is appealing to me because of its inherent surprises. There is always a negotiation going on with the material. Each piece of wood brings its own character to which I must adjust each time.
For me, the story behind the work is very important; there is a sense of narrative that is very private. The feelings and emotions that I convey through these abstract landscapes matter most to me. Almost always my images are of nature, but it is the essence of the landscape that I want to express, not realistic accuracy.
Because I am left-handed, part of my Ukiyo-e training included attending Sumi-e (ink brush painting) school to become more adept at using my right hand. Woodblock printmaking is a very precise step-by-step process of planning and design, so I really like Sumi-e for the freedom it gives me to express myself spontaneously.
This specific series was inspired by my observations of the attempts to preserve ancient wall paintings. Sometimes the areas that chip away are restored in an attempt to maintain the original vitality of the painting. Yet there is a certain beauty to wall paintings that honestly reflect the passage of time, which is what I wanted to capture in these pieces.

Etsuko Takahashi

Adjunct Associate Professor of Asian Languages and LiteraturesShow Bio and Photo

Ao Wang

Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and LiteraturesShow Bio and Photo

Janice Willis

Professor of ReligionShow Bio and Photo

Shengqing Wu

Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and LiteraturesShow Bio and Photo

Su Zheng

Associate Professor of MusicShow Bio and Photo

Xiaomiao Zhu

Adjunct Associate Professor of Asian Languages and LiteraturesShow Bio