Fudzuka Toshinao Text

There was a time when I was working on a piece of artwork in which I used clouds as if they were people and twisted them around with a burin. Even if something like a strong, willful "undulation" of a person appeared, the elusive and elusive inner fluctuation did not appear, and I struggled and thought about giving it some time.

A few years ago, I was asked by the editor of the Printing Museum to produce a book of prints with novelist Hoshio Sanae entitled "Cloud Contour," and then to produce prints to decorate the cover of a book of all the guitars produced by Shimo Takahiro, a luthier (guitar maker) of the SHIMOGUITARS. I was given the opportunity to work with mezzotint for the first time in search of a softer expression.
At the "Amabie" exhibition the year before last, I also used mezzotint to create a motif of clouds. The soft and elusive clouds, which could not be expressed by Burin, finally appeared.　Mezzotint gave me the opportunity to find a part of myself that I did not know existed.

...I should have reached out earlier.
Still, I reached out out out of necessity, and I honestly accept that it was time to do so.
I had been vaguely thinking, "If I were to do mezzotint, I would..." My thoughts about mezzotint as a viewer and my ideas as a creator. I tried various methods I could think of, such as tools and printing methods that would make this possible. The freshness of using a technique for the first time, and the momentum that comes with a warrior's tremor when facing the printing plate to express my fantasy in a "picture," somehow led me to complete the work over a period of four years.

Even a baby can hold a conversation and resist at the age of four; a student who entered college four years ago has graduated. Now, for reasons of coronavirus, I have been holed up like a chrysalis, and after four years since the last exhibition of my new works, I have crawled out of the ground.

FUDESUKA Toshihisa

1957 Born in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
1983 Completed the Graduate Program in Printmaking, Tokyo University of the Arts
1989–1990 Government of Canada Scholarship, Studied at the University of Alberta, Canada
1990–1991 Instructor, Ottawa School of Art, supported by the Japan–Canada Fund
1999–2000 Artist-in-Residence Program, Kraków Academy of Fine Arts and Wrocław Academy of Fine Arts, Poland (Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan)

■ Gallery Exhibitions
Art Studio Quattro (Hiroshima) · Artland Gallery (Kagawa) · Art Zone Kaguraoka (Kyoto) · Misaki Gallery (Oita) · The Tolman Collection (Tokyo) · Junko Museum of Art (Iwate) · Hiro Gallery (Wakayama) · Yanagisawa Gallery (Saitama) · Yoshindo Gallery (Tokyo)
In addition to more than 100 solo exhibitions in Japan and abroad, he has been extensively involved in exhibition planning and organization.

■ Museum Exhibitions, International Exhibitions, Group Exhibitions, and Awards
2023 “Print and Words” Exhibition, Galerie Petit Bois, Osaka
2022 Okada Marie & Toshihisa Fudesuka Two-Person Exhibition, Hiro Gallery, Wakayama
　　　“Seed Stories” Exhibition (2022– )
2020 “Kyoto Imaginary Book Design Studio” Exhibition, Art Zone Kaguraoka, Kyoto
2019 “Collection + Secrets of Gihō: Printmaking Edition,” Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa
　　　“Pianissimo” Three-Person Exhibition of Burin Engraving, Art Gallery Muse, Gunma
2018 “Winter Library” Exhibition, Gallery FUURO, Tokyo
　　　“Viewing Western Prints: Engraving—The Refined World Born from the Burin,” The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo
　　　“Autumn Library” Exhibition, Iwasaki Museum, Kanagawa
2017 “Petit Bois Library” Exhibition, Galerie Petit Bois, Osaka
　　　CROSSPOINT Exhibition, Kagawa Museum (Curated Exhibition), Kagawa
2016 Tribuna Graphic 2016, Museum of Art Cluj-Napoca, Romania (Invited Artist)
2014 Hangzhou Art Fair, Hangzhou, China
2013 “World Printmaking One,” Mile End Art Pavilion, London, U.K.
　　　“25 × 25: Contemporary Japanese & Australian Printmaking,” Sydney, Australia
2010 “Contemporary Japanese Printmaking Exhibition,” Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, Haifa, Israel
2006 Bharat Bhavan International Print Biennale, India (Invited Artist)

■ Public Collections
Shiga Museum of Modern Art · Miyagi Museum of Art · The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo · The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama · Kurobe City Art Museum · Shiogama City Library · Osaka Contemporary Art Center · Canada Council for the Arts (Canada) · Cleveland State Museum of Art (U.S.A.) · The British Museum (U.K.) · Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art (Israel) · National Academy of Theatre Arts, Kraków (Poland) · National Museum in Wrocław (Poland) · Bibliothèque nationale de France (France) · Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Germany) · and others