Guided Viewing: “Noda Tetsuya’s Diary of Contemporary Japanese Prints” with Collector Steven Co and Workshop: Traditional Woodcut Printmaking with Artist Michelle Fung
The HKU Museum Society is pleased to organize a two-part event held in conjunction with Noda Tetsuya’s Diary of Contemporary Japanese Prints, an exhibition of autobiographic work by the celebrated Japanese artist Noda Tetsuya, presented with support from the HKUMS 30th Anniversary Endowment Fund. The first part is a guided viewing with collector Steven Co and UMAG’s curatorial assistant Lorraine Choi. The second part is a workshop on traditional woodcut printmaking with artist Michelle Fung.
Part 1 – Guided viewing of Noda Tetsuya’s Diary of Contemporary Japanese Prints
Noda first specialized in painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts before turning to printmaking. Influenced by his upbringing in post-war Japan, and the ideological, social, economic and artistic transformations of the era, Noda started to build a diary of prints in the 1960s recording his daily life, mastering the challenge of documenting the reality around him in both true and artistic fashion. This exhibition investigates Noda’s artistic concept, approach and reception in the midst of the ever shifting and vibrant arena of printmaking and the broader Japanese art world, spanning the latter half of the 20th century to the present. The displayed works, all taken from the Steven Co Collection, illustrate how Noda’s innovations have carved the way for a reconsideration of the meanings of printmaking and art, beginning with his legendary victory at the Tokyo International Print Biennale in 1968.
Part 2 – Traditional Woodcut Printmaking Workshop
This taster workshop will introduce participants to the art of traditional woodcut printmaking. Participants will carve and print a delicate woodcut, inspired by Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints. At the end of this workshop, participants will take home one A5 woodcut print on handmade rice paper. No prior experience is required.
The workshop will be conducted by Hong Kong Canadian interdisciplinary artist Michelle Fung, an avid art educator for over two decades. She is currently working on a body of 99 unique woodcuts to portray “Polluta”, one of her fictional worlds (2018-ongoing.) Her woodcuts are being exhibited in many local and international museums and printmaking festivals including Impact 12, International Printing Conference (Bristol, UK, 2022), Impact 11, International Printing Conference (Hong Kong, 2021), 5th Global Print (Portugal, 2022), 11st International Printmaking Biennal Douro. (Portugal, 2022), Tribuna Graphic 2020 (Romania, 2020.) She had a recent solo exhibition at the municipal museum Varna Art Gallery Boris Georgiev, Varna, Bulgaria, as the invited guest artist of the Quarantine Film Festival (2022) and has held solo exhibitions at leading artist-run galleries in Australia (2019) and California (2018), as well as the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2019.)