Having returned from my long research trip to the Tokyo University of the Arts, I am currently busy making new plans, which includes applying for two marvelous public art commission opportunities, preparing an upcoming exhibition at the Hubei Museum of Art in China, and preparing a presentation about my experience in Japan: the new techniques I have learned, and what it was like to work with the great Japanese masters and the instructors and students in the program.
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28 September – 21 October 2010
| 2010 China Hubei International Lacquer Triennial Exhibition Presided by Mr. Fu Zhongang, Director of the Hubei Museum of Art, and curated by Pi Daojian, Chang Tsong-Zung, and Chen Qinqun Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, Hubei, China |
Early 2011
| Nhat Tran: New Urushi Work (provisional title) P.O.Box 352, Crawfordsville, IN 47933 |
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RECENT EVENTS
10 April to 18 July 2010
Guest Researcher at the Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai)
A rare and wonderful opportunity was offered to me! The Department of Crafts at the Tokyo University of the Arts invited me to spend a good three months as a guest researcher so that I could learn Japanese urushi techniques under the mentorship of Professors Arisumi MITAMURA and Norihiko OGURA, both internationally recognized masters of urushi art. This was a dream come true! I learned a very great deal about urushi directly from the very best specialists. The trip was full of challenges, but very rewarding in every respect. Before leaving, I had been learning the Japanese language thanks to a wonderful teacher, Black Sensei, who directs Kanji Camp in Carmel.
At the end of May, I accompanied Professors Mitamura and Ogura and their colleagues for a brief trip to China. We attended “Walking from the Age of Hemudu,” the Third International Exhibition of Chi Art and Academy Conference co-sponsored by the Fujian Art Museum and the Fujian Art and Craft Society, which took place from May 28 to June 8, 2010, at the Fujian Art Museum in the city of Fuzhou. One of my 2010 works, Dance Away, Emotion, was exhibited there as well thanks to the encouragement of my Japanese professors!
9 September to 1 October 2009
TRIP TO JAPAN
Thanks to the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship I have received from the Arts Council of Indianapolis, I spent three weeks in Tokyo and other Japanese cities where I met many fantastic people: highly reputed professors of urushi at the University of Tokyo and renowned urushi artists who have all accepted to receive me, show me their artwork, and discuss their techniques. It was such an honor and privilege to talk to them. This was a wonderful journey of discovery, which made me expand my knowledge and my circle of Japanese artists-friends. I was accompanied by my very good friend Barbara Ford, who's Research Curator of Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
June 20 to October 18, 2009
| Making it in the Midwest: Artists Who Chose to Stay 650 W. Washington • Indianapolis, IN 46204 |
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May 8, 2009
| Dreaming in Vivid Color: Opening Reception for the 2007-2008 Creative Renewal Arts Fellows Arts Council of Indianapolis’ Creative Renewal Exhibition and Retrospective (2007 round of fellows) The 2009 round of fellows was recognized on the opening day of the exhibition, on 8 May 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Indianapolis Arts Center 820 East 67th Street |
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January 23 to March 21, 2009
| Art for a New Century: Works Desired for the Permanent Collection Curated by Michael Atwell Art Museum of Greater Lafayette 102 South Tenth St • Lafayette, IN 47905
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