hpgrp GALLERY NEW YORK is pleased to announce our next exhibition titled “ARTS OF JOMON - Ancient Japanese Shaman’s culture reincarnate as alter modern arts-“. This special exhibition features works of 15 emerging Japanese artists inspired by the culture of Jomon, the Neolithic period in Japanese history.

Native Japanese Style
Jomon is the term for the Japanese Neolithic culture which lasted from about 145 B.C. to 3 B.C. It is one of the world’s earliest pottery and lacquer ware culture as well as the longest continuous culture in human history. Nowadays many artists in Japan have been inspired by the passionate design of pottery and clay figures created by the Jomon culture. We call this style and art movement “Jomonism”.

The cultural uniqueness of the Japanese archipelago comes from the long uninterrupted ethnic and religious history of Japan, beginning in the Jomon period and leading up to the present. The animism of the Jomon period remains a stark presence in the essence of Japanese spirituality, as symbolized by the word “Mottainai”, and the aesthetics represented by the concepts of wabi-sabi. The people of Japan, natives of the archipelago and throughout East Asia, created a unique culture by their open embracing of various cultures and values brought across the Eurasian continent and the Pacific Ocean, and merging it with their own animistic traditions. Recent aesthetic movements such as “Cool Japan” or “Kawaii” in addition to “Jomonism” can be seen as belonging to the same series of steps.

This “Jomonism” art exhibition here in Chelsea, NY, was made possible with the support of Aomori Prefectural Government which aims to have the “Hokkaido/Northern Tohoku Jomon Archaeological Sites”, a collection of the leading Jomon culture historical sites, to be designated as a World Heritage Site. Aomori prefecture is one of the devastated areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami in 2011. We hope the energy of the art of “Jomonism” will encourage and motivate many people to overcome the difficulties caused by the disaster, and also the social and economic instabilities across the globe, to create a whole new generation, and prosper.

Artists
Riyoo Kim, Junpei Omori, Fumihiko Sano, Kazuhito Maekawa, Jin Katagiri,
Kazuki Umezawa, Kazumichi Maruoka, Ryuichi Sakai, Masaya Kushino,
Taketo Kobayashi &Yoshinori Sakamaki a.k.a. Sense, SHOHEI, Meguru Yamaguchi,
Souryou Matsumura, Yumiko Shinozaki