“Japanese Calligraphy My Way” at Arts Center Aug. 27 – Oct. 2

Galveston Arts Center is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Galveston County-based artist Mayuko Ono Gray. The exhibition will open during the August 27th ArtWalk and remain on view through October 2, 2011. Curator Clint Willour will lead a gallery talk with the artist beginning at 6:30 pm during ArtWalk. The event is free and open to the public.

Mayuko Ono Gray, minu ga hana... (Flowers Unseen...), 2011 Graphite on paper, 41 x 50 inches

Gray’s new series of graphite drawings, Japanese Calligraphy My Way, features a combination of traditional Japanese calligraphy and Western drawing techniques. Beginning at age 6, Gray attended calligraphy school in Japan where she would be assigned “words” to copy from the master’s sample. There she learned to pay attention to the strokes, speed and pressure of the handling of the calligraphy brush, feeling and imitating the sensibility of the process that created the particular quality of the lines. “The ‘words’ used in Japanese calligraphy are usually poetic and resonate to the sensibility of ‘Haiku’—short and simple, but so much is contained within,” writes Gray. “For my works, I chose famous Japanese proverbs that I repeatedly heard growing up—which shaped my way of thinking or beliefs in my daily life as youth, and also now they apply to my daily life in the U.S.”

The exhibition will feature 4 large drawings representing the four seasons that combine Japanese proverbs entangled in what appear to be abstract vines or string. Works such as Minu ga hana… (2011), incorporate the Japanese proverb and its English translation: Flowers unseen, Flowers while waiting, Blissful ignorance (no more things beautiful than unseen). Gray has studied art in the United States since high school and is mainly a figurative artist. These abstract works in graphite on paper are a recent development in her work.
Gray received both a BFA and MFA in painting from the University of Houston. Her work was included in the group exhibition, The Drawing Room, at the Galveston Arts Center in 2008. She has had solo exhibitions at Hooks-Epstein Galleries, Houston, and Galeria 910, Oaxaca, Mexcio. She will have a one-person exhibition at the Mary Matteson-Parrish Art Gallery at Lone Star College Montgomery in Conroe later in October 2011.

Galveston Arts Center is operating in a temporary downtown gallery space—the site of the former Maceo’s Spice and Import Company located on the corner of Market and 25th Streets. The exhibition gallery and selections from GAC’s retail gallery, ArtWorks, are open to the public during the summer Monday through Saturday, from 11 am to 5 pm, and Sunday from noon to 5 pm. A flyer listing all ArtWalk participants with times and locations can be downloaded at www.contemporaryartgalveston.org.

SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP
Funding for the Galveston Arts Center is provided by the Houston Endowment, Inc., The Brown Foundation Inc., The City of Galveston Park Board of Trustees through the Hotel Occupancy Tax Fund, The Meyer Levy Charitable Foundation of The Dallas Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts, Harris and Eliza Kempner Fund, Levin Family Foundation, Jack and Annis Bowen Foundation, Dr. Leon Bromberg Charitable Trust Fund, and the generous support of the community, an active membership and many volunteers. GAC’s Art for All Education Program is supported in part by the Alice Taylor Gray Foundation, Harry S. and Isabel C. Cameron Foundation, Galveston Rotary Foundation, Inc., and the Jr. League of Galveston County’s Community Assistance Fund.