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Sarah Brayer's `Singing the Blues` (submitted photo)
Sarah Brayer's "Singing the Blues" (submitted photo)

Castellani Art Museum presents 'Between Two Worlds: Poured Paperworks by Sarah Brayer'

by jmaloni

Submitted

Mon, Jul 14th 2014 07:00 am

The Japan Culture Center of Western New York, in partnership with the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, is proud to announce a new exhibition showcasing the work of Sarah Brayer, a Rochester-born artist living in Kyoto.

Since the 1980s, Brayer has been making large-scale, handmade paperworks as the only westerner working in the 800-year-old papermaking village of Echizen. The wall panels, screens and scrolls she produces by strategically pouring paper pulp evoke themes common to traditional Japanese arts: abstracted visions of landscape, ocean and celestial scenes.

Lately, Brayer has incorporated photo-luminescent pigments that glow in fading light. By combining her training in both Eastern and Western artistic styles, she says her "task is to find new ways of expression in an age-old tradition" known in Japan as "washi."

"Between Two Worlds: Poured Paperworks by Sarah Brayer," will be on view July 20 through Dec. 21 at the Castellani Art Museum. Split between two galleries - mirror images of each other - the exhibition will explore Brayer's geographic and artistic journey between two cultural worlds.

One gallery, the "daylight" gallery, will introduce visitors to Brayer's personal style and its relationship to Japanese aesthetic and technical traditions. The other - the "night" gallery -will invite visitors to enter a meditative space enhanced by music and lighting that transitions slowly from bright to dark. As the light fades and rises again, luminous pigments within the artworks will reveal new dimensions before visitors' eyes.

As part of a weeklong celebration of cultural connections between Japan and Western New York in October, Brayer will make a special visit to Buffalo. A reception at the Castellani Art Museum will give visitors a chance to meet her in person and listen to her talk about her work.

The Japan Culture Center of Western New York has launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Brayer's visit to Western New York and in support of the exhibition.

For more information, contact Dr. Carrie Hertz, curator of folk arts, at 716-286-8290.

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