Hiroki morinoue biography of michael

Hiroki Morinoue

Born in 1947, in Holualoa on the Island of Hawaii, Hiroki Morinoue received his BFA degree from the California College of Arts and Crafts (now CCA) in 1973. Traveling to Japan in 1976 through 1982, he studied sumi brush painting with Koh Ito Sensei and Japanese woodblock printmaking, Mokuhanga with Takashi Okubo Sensei. Hiroki and Setsuko Morinoue established Studio 7 Fine Arts Gallery in November 1979, as the first and now longest standing contemporary art gallery in Hawaii. A humble space in a small village with a charmed history, the gallery holds an open-ended mission: to create and promote Contemporary Art. For Hiroki the landscape of Hawaii, its light, rocks, skies, and water has deeply influenced his work alongside the aesthetic of Japanese arts, crafts and landscaped gardens, which is prevalent in his work. In all of Morinoue’s work there is a compelling sense of place, curiosity and dialogue between the art and its viewer. He is a patient observer of nature, the rhythms of the ocean shoreline, the fluidity of lava flows, patterns of light on water, using symbols as suggestive messages and patterns from nature. He transcends these observations in various mediums, including watercolor, oil, acrylic and mix media paintings, monotypes, sculptures, photography, ceramics and Mokuhanga (Japanese woodblock prints). Hiroki Morinoue has shown widely in the United States and Japan. He has completed several major public art commissions, including projects at the Honolulu Public Library, and for the Hawaii Convention Center in 1996-97 where he executed a 90 foot mural titled Mauka, Makai. His work can also be viewed at Pahoa High School Library and First Hawaiian Bank. Morinoue’s work is represented in the collections of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, The Honolulu Academy of Arts, The Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts, Neiman-Marcus in Honolulu & Chicago, Verizon Haw

In the beginning…

I was born June 18, 1951 to Joanne Redak Lyon, then 20 and Lee Ripley Lyon, then 27. My father was an amateur photographer who worked with my grandfather in the family cattle hide processing business. My mother had been a student at Mills College prior to marriage, and by the time I was three or four years old she enrolled in the Kansas City Art Institute where she became a painting student of Wilbur Niewald. She worked on many of her art assignments at home. My early exposure to the paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and photography of my parents and their consistent praise of my own artwork were probably the reasons I’ve always wanted to be an artist.

Education

I received two degrees in art, a B.A. in Architecture and Fine Art (sculpture) from the University of Pennsylvania in 1973 and a B.F.A. in painting from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1975. Influential instructors were Frederic Osborne (sculpture), Frank Kawasaki (drawing), Michael Eisenman (printmaking), Rackstraw Downes (drawing), Neil Welliver (color theory), Stanley Lewis (drawing), and Wilbur Niewald (painting). The work I did in college were attempts to understand and conform to whatever I was taught – primarily ‘visual’ drawing and painting from life. I really had no other direction.

I have been interested in things Japanese and Zen since childhood. My first visit to Japan was in 1991 on a two week tour organized by Tsutomu Ohshima and Shotokan Karate of America which culminated in an exhibition at Waseda University in Tokyo to honor the 60th Anniversary of the Waseda karate club. I began to practice Japanese woodblock printmaking in 1996 and attended a two-week intensive workshop later that year under Hiroki Morinoue at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Colorado. Two years later I was able to practice under Hiroki for three weeks in another Anderson Ranch workshop. I eventually taught the techniques there and at the Center for

Hiroki Morinoue studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he received his BFA degree. Morinoue spent time in Japan studying with a Master woodblock printer. The skills he acquired in this intense pursuit are evident in the direct, elegant, and fluid woodcuts and monotypes Morinoue has made at Shark’s.

In all of Morinoue’s work there is a compelling sense of place–the ocean shoreline, lava flows and Japanese gardens. He is a patient observer of nature, its rhythms, cycles and patterns, and these observations become poetic images in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics and prints.

Morinoue’s latest prints are two woodblock diptychs titled Low Tide and High Tide.

In Low Tide the left panel captures the play of light on water with abstracted colorful reflections. The right panel depicts a tree rising through ripples on the water’s surface.

In High Tide the left panel captures the reflections of the edge of a pond and surrounding trees and hills. The right panel depicts fish circling beneath a tree that is submerged below the water’s reflections and ripples.

Hiroki Morinoue has shown widely in the United States and Japan. He has completed several major public art commissions, including projects at the Honolulu Public Library, and the Hawaii Convention Center. Morinoue’s work is represented in the collections of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Honolulu Academy of Arts, The National Parks Collection, Maryland; Ueno No Mori Museum, Tokyo, and others.

The Heckscher Museum of Art’s latest offering features a vibrant and timely exhibition on contemporary Asian and Asian American art. Drawn from the multifaceted collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation, the exhibit, titled Global Asias,examines the cosmopolitan, exuberant, and subtly subversive works of 15 artists of Asian heritage who are adept at crossing borders — not only physical ones, but also those in media, styles, genre, and materials. The show opened June 4 and runs through Sept. 18.

Global Asias invites viewers to think about Asia not in singular but plural terms — encouraging audiences to understand Asia as a site of meaning across the globe. The artists in Global Asias were born in Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Argentina, and the United States. The exhibition provides an opportunity to move away from considering Asia as a geographical location and instead invites viewers to think broadly about how “Asia” has long served as an imaginative construct.

Featured artists include Kwang Young Chun, Hung Liu, Do Ho Suh, Jacob Hashimoto, Mariko Mori, Akio Takamor, Manabu Ikeda, Hiroki Morinoue, Barbara Takenaga, Jun Keneko, Takashi Murakami, Rirkrit Tirayanija, Dinh Q. Lê, Roger Shimomra and Patti Warashina.

The exhibition was curated by Chang Tan, Assistant Professor of Art History and Asian Studies, Penn State.

“The artists included in this exhibition open our eyes to what it is like to cross boundaries both real and cultural,” said collector Jordan Schnitzer, whose family has a longstanding history of championing Asian art and culture. “I hope each viewer is as moved as I am by this exhibition and is challenged and inspired by the art. The power of this exhibition will influence all of us for years to come.”

“Global Asias is brimming with fascinating work by internationally renowned artists. As the only East Coast venue for the exhibition, The Heckscher Museum has a unique opportunity t