Samurai in Contemporary Culture at WAM this Spring

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Thursday, February 12, 2015

GoLocal Worcester Lifestyle Team

Beginning in April and lasting through September, the Worcester Art Museum will feature an exhibit of samurai in contemporary culture. The exhibit, called 'Samurai!' will be a collection of Japanese arms and armor from the John Woodman Higgins Collection.

“As we continue to integrate the Higgins collection into our own, we are creating transformative spaces within the Museum that immerse visitors in ideas emanating from a distant time period but continue to feed the imaginations of today’s most creative minds,” said WAM Director Matthias Waschek. “With the opening of Samurai!, the Museum encourages viewers to draw connections between fine art and popular culture, while sparking a dialogue on how western perceptions of eastern customs are manifested through these medium

The exhibit will include paintings, drawings, paper sculpture, and digital and woodblock prints. The exhbition will spotlight work by Japanese and American artists and illustrators including Miya Ando, James Jen, kozyndan, Mu Pan, Ferris Plock, Masakatsu Sashie, Rob Sato, Yuko Shimizu, and Kent Williams.

Along with the artists work will also be samurai objects from the 1500s to the 1800s. From May 4 to May 9, WAM visitors will also have the opportunity to see the installation of murals being created by artists Andrew Hern, Audrey Kawasaki, and Mari Inukai.

“Samurai! has been a highly collaborative process with the Museum’s curatorial, education, and conservation departments,” said guest curator Eric Nakamura, founder of the Los Angeles-based Giant Robot Store and GR2 Gallery. “I am used to working with contemporary artists and illustrators, but looking at historical materials through a contemporary lens has produced truly unique work. A number of surprising parallels can be made—both time periods have flourishing art production, including work in traditional media but also unexpected places, from armor of the past to the streets of the present. As someone at the intersection of Asian and Asian American popular culture, it’s rewarding to introduce visitors to Japanese customs and contemporary art simultaneously.” 

The exhibition will run from April 18 to September 6, 2015. For more information, please see the WAM website: http://www.worcesterart.org/events/

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