Ushering in the Mois de l’art imprimé, the Visual Voice Art Gallery has just set up an exhibition of prints by Japanese artist Yuka Higashiura.

This series of printed works titled Animal en parallèle is delicate, poetic, and utterly charming. The central theme of this exhibit is the Japanese concept of “Gijin-ho”, which roughly translates as “anthropomorphisation.” Humans tend to assign certain character traits to animals, to which the animals themselves are blissfully unaware in their “parallel lives.” Higashiura sets about to re-examine these characterizations with her series of 26 prints. Each print is subtly delightful without being cute. Her innovative use of printing techniques lends each piece extra interest. She uses aquatint, dry point, embossing, etching, and chine-collé, often several techniques on the same sheet of paper. I find her method of cutting the print plate into several small shapes and arranging them in floaty compositions on the paper quite unusual. I also love her muted colour palette with the occasional dashes of vivid reds and blues.
If you’re free this Saturday afternoon from 2:00pm – 5:00pm, you should drop by the vernissage!

Galerie d’art contemporain Visual Voice
space 421
Yuka Higashiura
Animal en parallèle
exhibition dates: April 24 – May 4, 2008
www.visualvoicegallery.com