Fragmentary #2

Katsutoshi Yuasa

Oil-based Woodcut Print 2023

30.5 x 45.5 cm / Paper size 35 x 50 cm

Edition of 25 + 4 A.P. (the artist retain 4 A.P.)

Oil-based printing ink / Handmade Japanese paper (Echizen)

Katsutoshi Yuasa's works are based on the traditional Japanese technique of "woodblock prints," which originated in ukiyoe prints that were popular during the Edo period (1603-1868). The artist performs the process of "drawing, engraving, and printing," which was done by a division of labor in the past. For the drawing, the artist uses digital photographs taken by himself, carves them by hand with an engraving knife, and prints them with a barrel, sublimating them into works of art.

Fragmentary / Fragmentary means "something formed from various fragments." The photographic image transferred onto the woodblock disappears as it is carved with the engraving knife. By slowly tracing with the eye the lines that become part of the whole carved one by one, the viewer is invited to ponder how the landscape we are accustomed to seeing is formed.

About the Artist

Born in Tokyo, Japan.

1978 Graduated from Musashino Art University, Department of Oil Painting (Printmaking Course)

1979 Royal College of Art, London, UK

1980 Completed Master's Degree in Printmaking

He has held numerous solo exhibitions in England, Germany, China, and other countries and has exhibited at numerous art fairs worldwide. In recent years, he has held the "Monet: 100 Years Since" exhibition at the Nagoya City Art Museum and the Yokohama Museum of Art, a major solo exhibition at the Franz Gertsch Museum in Switzerland in 2022, and an exhibition at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, this year, His work has been widely exhibited around the world.