'Strikethroughs' Katsura Okada Solo exhibition

Katsura Okada was born in Tokyo, Japan, attended Sokei Academy of Fine Art & Design and has a Master of Japanese Calligraphy Arts from the Tokyo Academy of Calligraphy Art. The artist’s distinctive works include a myriad of lines painted by color pencil and brush in different colors and arranged in a particular order to give an impression of an organic form or an abstract shape. Katsura utilizes powdered pigments, SUMI color ink, gold leaf, color pencils, acrylic and natural liquid adhesive on handmade paper to produce her unique lightweight paintings. Says the artist: "Strikethroughs, delete lines," may sound negative, but that is not to say that it is ugly or dirty to me at the dispute. I was drawing with a positive image, and I was erasing the forms. It is like moving on to the next thing, as a starting point or a new beginning. First I drew some organic, informel, (in French is informel, in English is informalism) and botanical shapeless forms, then many lines covering and making layers by overlapping several strikethroughs. I used colored pencils, brushes, and then placed the repetition of these layers on the formless forms. Instead of redoing something, I turned it into a spring and used it as a starting point to become the footprints and trajectory that move forward, a starting point or a restart, even slowly or quickly. I tried to draw many such lines in the new series. by overlapping several strikethroughs. I used colored pencils, brushes, and then placed the repetition of these layers on the formless forms. Instead of redoing something, I turned it into a spring and used it as a starting point to become the footprints and trajectory that move forward, a starting point or a restart, even slowly or quickly. I tried to draw many such lines in the new series. Since 1990, Okada’s work has been shown extensively worldwide, including many European countries, France, Germany, Italy,  Hungary, Slovakia, Mexico, Canada and the United States. She has exhibited in a number of galleries in Brooklyn and NYC, including A.I.R. Gallery, Black and White Gallery, Columbia and Marymount Manhattan Colleges among others. Recently, Okada’s works have been exhibited at Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Hammond Museum in North Salem, New York, and Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, She also participated in the 57th Venice Biennial in 2017. The artist’s works have been shown in her native Japan in Karuizawa New Art Museum in Nagano, and the Museum of Arts & Crafts-Itami in Hyogo. Okada has received first prize/grants from Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the Shoto Museum of Art in Tokyo and the SoHo Art Competition in New York among others. Publications include Hyperallergic, ARTspeak, Manhattan Arts, NY Arts Magazine, the Yomiuri America newspaper, New York, LUXOS (Milano), Collezioni Sport & Street (Modena), IL NOTIZIARIO DELL’ A.I.A.M. (Rome), Les Editions Arts et Images du Monde (Paris), DART International Magazine (Toronto) and others.