NY Coo Gallery Announces Their July Exhibition

For the month of July, the NY Coo gallery is happy to present a collaborative exhibition, "Sakura Flutter" consisting of calligraphy, photography and hats.?At the same time, we will also be presenting Nizo Ohashi's "New Power of Japanese Ink."

"Sakura Flutter" will be exhibiting three artists' individual signature artwork; Kayon's calligraphy; Ailink's photography; and aco's handmade hats, as well as their unique collaborative pieces they have worked on together.

Born in Shizuoka prefecture, Ink painter Kayon has started calligraphy at the young age of five.?To this day, she is learning under a well respected mentor in order for her to continuously improve her calligraphy skills.?She has gone beyond the authentic beauty of calligraphy and incorporated various forms of art such as photography, make-up and flower arrangements to create her own style. Yet, despite her trendy/exotic/unconventional style, she has high respect towards the Japanese culture and is exploring in depth on kouta (Edo period Japanese classical music), shamisen (3 stringed Japanese instrument), and kimono (traditional clothes). While she hopes to enlarge her vision from living abroad, she hopes to express her Japanese side to influence her art.?In this specific show, she will be showing her Chinese calligraphy pieces from old texts in addition to her smaller original pieces.

Ailink, a photographer is originally from Nagano prefecture. Having a grandfather who is a doctor and a father who is a pharmacist, she naturally became interested in the medical field at a young age. ?She hence has graduated with a pharmacy degree and becomes a pharmacist in Tokyo. However around the same time, as she starts to travel around the world, her passion grew to include photography. ?In particular, she is passionate about the ways she is able to express herself via photography. As she begins to discover herself, she builds her own personal collection, as well as collaborating with other artists from various genres including music, films, paintings and calligraphy. She thus decides on Ailink as her artist name, based on her strong belief that she wants to assist in linking people as well as linking opportunities.?The photographic collection that will be exhibited, "ephemeral" will feature seasonal transitions, beautiful moments, as well as pictures from her trips she has taken along with poems she has written. ?Finally, she will be depicting her additional theme of "color" in her photography.

Hat designer, aco is from Saitama prefecture. ?Her interest in hats began while she was studying at Bunnka Fukusougaku (Cultural Clothing Institute) and in 2005, she has started up her own brand, "rawumber plus hat."? To further build her career as a hat designer, she moves to England for about 2 years.?While gaining more knowledge and experience, in 2007 she has started designing hats for "OLDMAN" hat boutique in Japan. ?She is also very active in custom made hats for clienteles in music videos, films and CD/album covers. Aco loves nature and she believes natural sources such as trees, sky and wind gives her inspiration and profound energy. ?She uses renewable/plantable materials such as natural herbs (Panama straw, buntal), felt, leather, button, silk ribbon for her hats. ?Her collection is titled "harvest," alluding to her experience obtained in Japan will thrive in New York. ?In fact, her brand name "rawumber plus hat" comes from raw umber, a natural brown pigment which becomes more intense when heated, pertaining to the capacity for the hat to "grow" and be extraordinary.

The three artists' collaborative pieces that will be exhibited include "Tokyo Otome (girl)" in which Kayon is the model in the photograph, emphasizing the beauty in traditional Japanese culture, as well as art pieces that express the three artists' views and beliefs on flutters of sakura (cherry blossom).

Sakura is known to be the richly symbolic flower of Japan and it represents many aspects of Japanese cultural tradition. ?The transience of the blossoms, known as "hanadoki" (the time when flowers bloom to when they shrivels) and in specific, "sakuradoki" (the time when sakura blossoms to when they falls) will be depicted through calligraphy, photograph and hats collaboration.
The beauty involved in such a phenomenon of sakura flutter, is portrayed via eyes of these young, avant garde artists all from the 1980s. ?Please come and enjoy the refreshing, new, lively impression of the Japanese culture in this exhibition.

Running simultaneously, Nizo Ohashi's eclectic solo exhibition, "New Power of Japanese Ink" will be exhibited as well.

At the age of seven, he was already mesmerized by calligraphy and was determined to educate himself with Asian linguistics.?By the age of 16, he encountered "tenshoutai (pictographic ancient script)," a special type of calligraphy very similar to hieroglyphics and this opened a whole new dimension of calligraphy to him. ?In 2003, he went to pursue a fine arts degree in LA to further research into creating/discovering new forms of calligraphic script art by applying traditional Japanese calligraphy with some new materials or elements.? In 2007, he transferred to NY City College and currently he's working on interior design as well as logos and advertisements for Japanese restaurants.

"A stroke of black ink on a plain white paper," what seems to be a simple concept, was the initiation and he was fascinated by the beauty borne out of the colors black and white. ?These two polar colors are opposite in nature, yet the inter-connection of the two and how they complement each other so well; a concept that applies and exists everywhere in our life, is what he hopes to express via Japanese calligraphy. ?He searches for the extreme and uncommon beauty that is created via calligraphy and the ways in which he can express this form of art. ?Just like the two dependent opposing colors seeking to find the right balance, he aims to find a new meaning of Asian calligraphy through assembling materials and ink that is very different.

For the artist himself, he believes that any form of art is intended to express and stimulate thoughts and emotions. ?He hopes to engage the audience's sensibilities and for them to create a sense of beauty; to explore into the perception of pleasure within themselves. ?In addition to the usage of traditional paper and ink, audience will also enjoy his unique usage of canvas, acrylic, ink and glue to express the meaning behind "New Power of Japanese ink."

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