Kumi Korf, known for her architectural-based book artworks, will present a series of prints, a new direction for Korf, as well as accompanying artist books that incorporate red paper from Tosa.
This featured project can be considered as a mini retrospective exhibition spanning back to 1998, the year Korf met Akatosashi (red paper from Tosa, Japan) and her way of printmaking radically changed. About a decade earlier, Korf started making her own kozo paper in order to create collages incorporating diverse materials as they were being formed. In 1 998, when Kumi started to print intaglio on Akatosashi alone, she discovered that artists employ woodblocks and chine colle pri nting methods to print Washi (Japanese paper) in conjuncture with hard etching paper. By eliminating the embossing quality of plate marks on hard paper, Kumi
was able to take advantage of positioning the copper plate wherever needed. Using stencils afforded her even more freedom.
Akatosashi paper and intaglio techniques continue to hold her creative attention. When printing 20″x 1 6″ plates, side by side, the beveled plate edges inevitably leave a white line between the prints. Korf employs this marking trope to express changes in mood, time, and space.
Korf’s work is thematically driven. She is especially intrigued by early to mid 20th century and 1 7th-century Japanese art. Korf’s daily life in a woodland setting, exposed to the four seasons and the coming and going of insects and wild animals, contributes content and energy to her art. Though Korf could use any Was hi with similar weight to Akatosashi, this paper’s singular magic is in its name. “Aka” translates to “red;’ “Tosa” is a region of Shikoku Island, and “Shi” means “paper:’The slight redness of Akatosashi unifies Korf’s color palate. Korf is conscious of her debt to the paper and its original source:’
About Artists’ Books
Korf is passionate about inventing structures that open and close and take shapes in various ways. The books in this exhibit were chosen because of their use of printed Akatosashi paper. Three texts are included.
Artist’s Biography
Kumi Korf was born and grew up in post-war Japan when the country plunged into adoption of the western world’s values. The duality of tradition and non-tradition remains as a fertile ground for Kort’s mode of perception and creation.
She graduated with a B.A. in Architecture from Tokyo University of Fine Arts, later earning an M.F.A. in printmaking at Cornell University, received a fellowship from the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and apprenticed at Dieu Donne for papermaking.
Printing has been a major artistic endeavor. As a natural progression, her intaglio prints began to be included in the vocabulary of her artists’ books work.
Korf’s artists’ books are often inspired by autobiographical material whether overt or hidden. Collaboration with writers is an added inspiration in some cases. Her passion for innovative bindings suggested by content, and inventive uses of hinges for sculptural structures are her two of her special interests. She creates small, but expansive, iconic and surreal spaces in her sculptural books. Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Europe, Japan, Latin America, Egypt. Collections of her works are found in public institutions, museums, and universities worldwide.
An artist talk will be held Friday, November 2nd at 6:30 pm.
