About Wakuda / Jonathan Wakuda Fischer  

www.wakudastudio.com
www.wakudastudio.blogspot.com



Ukiyo-e, or “pictures of the transient world of everyday life,” was true pop art well before the likes of any American conception of the form. At the height of its popularity in 18th Century Japan, these woodblock prints portrayed a lifestyle filled with the new pleasures available to a growing class of Japanese urbanite. My work is an homage to the spirit of Ukiyo-e, incorporating these same elements of beauty, fashion and leisure, while fusing them with anachronistic content.

I combine latter 20th century technology with the ancient style of woodblock as a way to create something new from two obsolete artifacts of history. “ Japonisme,” or the fascination with woodblock in 18th Century Europe occurred when the art form was actually declining in the East, supplanted in popularity by new Western advancements such as the photograph. It seems amazing to me that such a long-standing, traditional art form could be rendered obsolete in the space of a few decades, and my addition of similarly outdated electronics aims to bring these two forgotten relics together in both content and style.

While the content may be of a historical nature, the technique in creating the art is purely modern. Elements of color layering and reproduction were the initial attractions for my use of stencils and spraypaint to emulate Ukiyo-e, but any similarities end there. After perfecting my technique in basic stenciling, I moved on to a more ‘painterly’ approach in which I strive to make every work distinctly unique, rather than creating uniformly reproduced pieces

My art contains duality on several levels: between East and West, past and (near) present, and the very style of the art and the technique used to create it. Our culture does not place much value on what has become obsolete, but there is much to learn from what has come before and the possibility to reclaim things that have been lost. By connecting different stylistic elements of the past with a modern technique, I hope to create dynamic art that is transcendent of any particular time or place in history.


Upcoming:


I'll be at Upper Playground Seattle's 5024SEA Gallery in January 2010.

Please email me if you'd like to be added to my mailing list and notified of new shows, or to schedule one with me!


Past Shows:



02/27/09
Stencil show with Peat Wollaeger& Dave Soukup
Rotofugi, Chicago

04/10/09 Solo show
Lower Hater, San Francisco

06/05/09
Bamboo Grove Salon, Portland




12/01/08
Macho Cheese Groupshow
Joebar, Seattle

12/01/08
Studio 27.28, Philadelphia

11/21/08
Artifakt group show
Lo Fi, Seattle

11/01/08
Solo Vinyl Show
Jive Time Records, Seattle

10/03/08
Vinyl Record Exhibition
APW Gallery, NYC

10/01/08
Skate Deck Show
Studio 27.28, Philadelphia

09/20/08
Solo show opening
Galactic Boutique, Seattle


7/08- Orange Splot Gallery, Seattle WA
6/08- Gary Manuel, Seattle WA
6/08- Lower Hater, San Francisco CA (Group Show)
4/08- JoeBar, Seattle WA (Group Show)
3/08- Retrofit Home, Seattle WA
2/08- Starlife on the Oasis, Seattle WA
12/07- Bluebottle Gallery, Seattle WA (Boutique)
12/07- Lower Hater, San Francisco CA (Group Show)
12/07- Retrofit Home, Seattle WA (Group Show)
10/07- Urban Outfitters, Seattle WA

If you're extremely bored, here's a documentary I was part of in April 2008.