exhibitions and events

Contemporary Japanese Medallic Sculpture

March 1 to May 31, 2003

An exhibition of 70 medallic sculptures by 28 artists

Including a special exhibit of work by Keiichi Uryu (1919~1992)
Recipient of the 1990 Saltus Award and father of the contemporary Japanese medal.

"I am very excited to have the opportunity to curate the exhibition, Contemporary Japanese Medallic Sculpture. We do not have much opportunity to view an extensive exhibition of contemporary Japanese medal art. The majority of Japanese artists who create medallic sculpture do not exhibit their work in international medal art exhibitions.

Japan has a long history in the use of delicate techniques and expression in art objects which fit into ones hand like netsuke (a small carved ornament on a pillbox or a tobacco pouch ), kanzashi and kushi (womans hair ornaments ) and tsuba (sword guard).
Unlike western civilization, the coin in Japan did not develop into a precious art form. Coins were valued in gold by weight. Contemporary coins in the Western style in Japan were created in 1869. In 1868, the new Japanese government, the Meiji era, realized that the money format should be uniform. The techniques in coin production started with purchasing the entire coin making equipment of the Hong Kong Mint, which had been run by the British government. The first coins were designed by a famous Japanese silversmith and his school, and produced under the supervision of British technicians who were employed by the Japanese government until 1876.
Contemporary Japanese medal making utilizes the ancient tradition of the metalsmith and the silversmith crafts.

Collecting commemorative coins includes: special events, depiction of unique individual personalities, railroad trains and also relief stamps are very popular. In other countries, contemporary medal art, other than the commemorative medal, is also not a fine art form.

My intention in curating this exhibition is to introduce the nuance of contemporary Japanese medal art. Since I gathered scant information about Japanese artists in the medallic art field, I asked my two friends, Masaharu Kakitsubo and Tsutomu Tamura to help organize this exhibition. Therefore, this exhibition is curated by the three of us, Tamura, Kakitsubo and Mashiko. Both Kakitsubo and Tamura are very influential to medal art in different ways. I met them at the London FIDEM in 1992. Kakitsubo inherited a private struck medal company from his father and continues operating the company with his two younger brothers in Tokyo. He is internationally known as a contemporary medal art collector, and at the same time he himself is a medallic sculptor. Tamura is a figurative sculptor based in Osaka who majored in sculpture at the Kyoto University of Arts. He is the creator of many public commemorative medals, such as the National High School Baseball Tournaments medal, parallel olympic (Paralympic) medal, etc. . His works, mainly in bronze, can be seen at civic institutions in the Osaka area.
The focus in selecting artists for Kakitsubo was to invite sculptors whose main material is bronze, or the medallic artists. Tamura's intention was introducing medal art to the sculptor who was not familiar with this unique art format. Inviting them to this exhibition would give the opportunity for a new application of this medium, in a medal art format. My intention was inviting artists who express themselves through Japanese traditional materials, and challenge them to express their thoughts in a medallic art format."

Mashiko Nakashima, director

Tsutomu Tamura:
Capricorn and Lad (2002)

Tamura: Aries and Boy (2002)

Catalogue of the 28 artists' work and a colored brochure of Uryu's work are available.

Price: $10 plus mailing expenses: $2 for Canada, $4 rest of the world. Make checks payable to: "Medialia Gallery"

Medialia ... Rack and Hamper Gallery
335 West 38th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10018

Telephone: 1 212 971 0953

e-mail: medialia@cs.com