Takahiro Maruno's skillfully rendered, richly colored and expressive abstract etchings reflect a relationship with nature begun as a child, playing in the fields and woods and streets of suburban Tokyo. His memories of the sensual joy of being in nature —- the green smell of the lawn, the sound of the wind creeping up on him, the brightness of a dandelion on the asphalt after the rain, the wide sky above -- these experiences sank deep into his mind and heart, and their memory informs his art, bringing fresh expression to the centuries old art of printmaking.
In making etchings, the copperplate is first covered with an acid-resistant wax or resin ground. Then the image is incised into the wax or resin layer with an etching needle. Finally the plate is dipped into acid. The acid bites into the exposed lines where the wax or resin was removed. These acid-bitten areas hold the ink or color medium. The plate is run through the press, the plate is cleaned and re-inked and, the paper, once dried, is reprinted, building up color and form until the satisfactory image is produced. While the plate may be used again and again, each time it must be re-inked and therefore, each etching is an original, one-of-a-kind image.
Printmaking is intriguing for Maruno in its combination of highly refined technical skill and beautiful accident. "If I work harder," he tells us, "I can be a friend of accidents." He poetically refers to that artist self that is always ahead of the conscious self when he says, "It is the accident maker I love."
Born in Tokyo in 1965, Maruno graduated from the Kuwasawa Design School in 1989. While in school, Takahiro worked with Q Designers, Kuramata Design, Studio 80, and the Tokyo office of Studio Di Architettura, Aldo Rossi, Principal. After graduation, Takahiro worked as a designer and architect with Akira Watanabe Architect and Associates. The many creative people he worked with in Tokyo, artists and others, have strongly influenced his understanding of his responsibility to his art. They have inspired him to make the best use of material, to set material off to exhibit its unique, innate qualities.
In 1994 Maruno set out for New York City with the wish to expand his experience, to be in a place where he could view things from many different angles, and choose among many options. In New York he has studied at The National Academy of Design with such renowned artists as Vincent Baldassano, Kathleen Caraccio, Beth Lipman, and George Nama.
In the etchings exhibited here, Maruno employs oil paint as his medium, adding rich bold colors to his asymmetrical designs, creating dramatic images abstracted from nature. Art theorists have suggested that we are most attracted to landscape when as city-dwellers, ensconced in our urban centers, we feel most intensely the loss of nature. For Takahiro Maruno, the life of the city, the chance encounter, serves as a kind of sensual depth charge, bringing memory of nature to the surface, his art born in the moment.
"My etchings are created mainly for the contemplation of nature in all its seasons and are based on the joy of encountering the delights of nature both visually and spiritually. They are created out of my memories as a youth in Tokyo and have since been reinforced and more clearly defined for me when I arrived in New York City in 1994 and began studying at the National Academy of Design. These etchings are my calendar of the seasons in New York City-a silent hymn to these four seasons, which comes from my love for the beauty of both New York City and the earth in general."
Each of Maruno's unique prints, built from qualities inherent in the chosen medium, reflects these remarkable visions and the feelings they produce.
Maruno has received numerous awards for his prints. In 1989 and 2000 he was awarded the Arthur and Melville Phillips Scholarship at the National Academy. He received the Ralph Wailer Exhibition Award at the Cork Gallery, Lincoln Center in 2001. In 2002 he was awarded The National Academy School Benefit Scholarship and the Louis LeBeaume Scholarship. In 2003, his work was exhibited at the Alfrex Showroom, Fukuoka, Japan.
ERNDEN FINE ART GALLERY is pleased to represent Takahiro Maruno. For more information on Takahiro's work, please contact Dennis Costin, Gallery Director at 508-487-6700 or 1-888-304-ARTS or via email www.erndengallery@att.net.
