Midori Furuhashi, a native of Hiroshima, dives deep into Japanese artistic tradition to create her one-of-a-kind, dreamily updated visions of the sublime. Employing the ancient materials of handmade paper and pigment derived from metal, shell, and rock, Furuhashi recreates the delicate, radiant tracery of the best-known Japanese pen-and-ink painters, such as Katsushika Hokusai. However, her addition of a female figure intertwined with flowers, animals, and symbolic elements is unmistakably modern and irrepressibly imaginative, showing her vision beyond the confines of tradition.
Furuhashi’s pieces display a centralized composition, flattened field of depth, and a simplified color palette that often relies on a single dramatic contrast between two tones. Within such technical restraints, the artist finds a wealth of symbolic territory in her subject matter. Women’s faces emerge from enormous blossoms; two figures embrace amidst a whirlpool of brushstrokes. “I feel all creatures have the same roots of life,” Furuhashi says by way of explaining her sensational creations. “Love continues our existence externally, passing one’s life to the next generation.”