Exhibit: Thursday June 21, 2018 to Friday, July 13, 2018
Monday-Friday 10am-7pm, Saturday* 12-5pm
Closed on Sundays and July 4
*The artist will be on-site on Saturdays.
Pre-Opening Event: Gyotaku Lecture & Demonstration
Wednesday, June 20, 2018 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Lecture: Squids, Our Long-Term Friends Save the World
Lecturer, Dr. Satoshi Tomano
Thursday, June 28, 2018 7:00pm
Free admission but reservation is required for the lectures & gyotaku demonstration
RSVP for Gyotaku Lecture & Demonstration
RSVP for Squid Lecture
The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles
5700 Wilshire Blvd., #100 Los Angeles, CA 90036
Street parking is available near JFLA.
Click here for parking info.
Admission Free
Japanese gyotaku (lit. ‘fish rubbing’) is the unlikely marriage of fish, sumi ink, and washi paper. Once used to record the size of an impressive catch, it has been elevated to a fine art through the efforts of gyotaku masters such as Yutaka Aso (1898-1961) and Yoshio Hiyama (b. 1909) and was introduced to the United States in the mid-20th century. Contemporary practitioners have supplanted the traditional method with modern acrylics and oil-based inks, as well as the inclusion of pigmentation by colored inks or through digital editing.
Dwight Hwang (b. 1974) is a Los Angeles-based, Korean-American storyboard artist who trained in gyotaku during a seven year stint in Japan. A self-taught traditionalist in that he almost exclusively creates black-and-white images with water-based sumi, Dwight brings life to lifeless forms through his innovative approach which has produced unique depictions of fish at a three quarter view and from above.
"Impressions of the Seas: Gyotaku Fish Prints" features a selection of prints depicting freshwater, coastal and open ocean specimens alongside objects which detail the gyotaku printmaking process.
- Michael VanHartingsveldt (LACMA), curator
About Artist
Dwight Hwang’s obsessive love for fishing and his artistic ambitions came together during his many years in Japan on a visit to a cramped, dusty tackle shop. Pinned onto the walls and the ceiling were wrinkled sheets of rice paper with impressions of the prized catches by local anglers.
He was taken aback by what he saw but knew nothing about the art, until his fishing companions informed him that it was a cultural art that originated in Japan called ‘Gyotaku’. Something that only really found interest with old,salty fishermen or as an activity for young, curious children.
With no one to teach him, Dwight simply resorted to experimenting with sheets of cheap calligraphy paper and discount bottles of sumi ink. The results looked like messy black blotches that vaguely resembled what he was trying to print.
Together with his wife, he would continue to print fish on the floor of their humble apartment for years until he realized that the fish may be the subject, but it was also a tool in of itself. That realization would help him control his process so much that his prints not only began to look and remind him of his prized catch, but also gave him the confident flexibility to add what he hopes would set him apart; a sense of life, perspective and movement.
Dwight continues to strive to perfect his process while strictly and proudly using only the materials and techniques originally used hundreds of years ago.
https://fishingforgyotaku.com
