7 "Untitled, 06, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese Screen. 67 x 131 in.

It would be fitting to refer to the new works of contemporary artist, Akihiko Iwanami, as the perfect storm. Strong colors of red, blue, yellow, gold, and black are splashed onto paper creating a sea of mesmerizing rhythms. Like the tumultuous effects of fire, smoke, and wind, Iwanami’s works are stained and streaked with shapes like shadows or clouds ominously emerging. Iwanami employs the traditional Japanese techniques of Nihonga (mineral pigments of rock and minerals with rabbit skin glue) and Sumi inks with his style of Modernism. It is this fusion that gives Iwanami’s paintings the consistency of tradition and the unpredictability of abstraction. When bursts of color pool on the paper, the paint seems to arch and fall just as a wave swells and crests. The natural energy generated by these meditative works places the viewer at the very center of the perfect storm.

1 "Untitled, 08, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese paper. 59 x 36 in.

2 "Untitled, 08, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese paper. 84 x 60 in.

3 "Untitled, 07, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese Screen. 67 x 198 in.

4 "Untitled, 09, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese paper. 59 x 40 in.

5 "Untitled, 09, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese paper. 72 x 97 in.

6 "Untitled, 08, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese paper. 60 x 84 in.

8 "Untitled, 1999" Four panel folding Screen. 45 x 108 in.

9 "Untitled, 05, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese paper. 71 x 36 in.

10 "Untitled, 07, 00" 2000. Mineral pigment on Japanese paper. 97 x 73 in.