September 8th sees the opening of ICN Gallery, an exciting new commercial Asian art gallery in Shoreditch, London, that will exhibit everything from Pop Art to traditional craft works from the contemporary Japanese and Asian art scene.
The ICN gallery will open with a very special exhibition entitled ‘OHAKO’. The word ‘OHAKO’ means ‘one’s best skill’ but is also the word for traditional Japanese tea boxes.
Each of the 30 participating artists, who are leading the creative culture scene in Japan today, specialising in manga art, ceramics, architecture, fashion design, character design and fine art, were given a traditional tea box from Shizuoka. They created a unique piece of art that is housed inside, transforming it into an art box, with a view to giving London visitors a rare opportunity to experience the unique harmony of the Japanese arts using a combination of traditional and contemporary expression.
Reflecting the creative culture of Asia, and in particular Japan, this unique gallery with its adjoining café specialising in Japanese tea, delivers a new style of art space in London. The café will serve high quality Japanese tea supervised by tea master Yoshio Moriuchi. A selection of Shizuoka teas will be on sale in the café and there will be regular classes on tea culture by a Japanese tea specialist.
(Courtesy of ICN Gallery Curator Hisami Omori)
