[BCMA] [MEDIA RELEASE] Takao Tanabe career print retrospective opens in Kelowna

Wed Jun 28 09:08:20 PDT 2023

For Immediate Release

[Media Preview information below release]

Takao Tanabe career print retrospective opens in Kelowna

Takao Tanabe: Printmaker

July 1 to October 1, 2023

June 28, 2023 - Kelowna, BC: Artist Takao Tanabe is among Canada's most celebrated painters and printmakers.  He is recognized for his beautifully rendered landscapes that bridge the gap between abstraction and realism. Beginning this weekend, Okanagan audiences will be able to see a career-spanning retrospective of Tanabe's prints in Takao Tanabe: Printmaker at the Kelowna Art Gallery.

"Takao Tanabe's work contains so much raw physical and emotional power within them," says Nataley Nagy, Executive Director at the Gallery. "We are very honoured to present this first within Canada, a 75-year-survey of Tanabe's accomplished printmaking, with work borrowed from the Vancouver Art Gallery and Winnipeg Art Gallery."

Visitors will have the chance to view some of the artist's earliest prints, like two linocut Christmas Cards from 1948, up to his most recent West Coast landscape titled Cormorant Island, completed in 2023 (at the youthful age of 96).  Other featured works include Prairie Storm (1979), a landscape that breaks broader conventions in printmaking by incorporating ink hand brushing techniques, and Malacca Strait: Dawn (2004), a woodcut/intaglio print that utilizes form and colour to depict a stillness between ocean and land.

Takao Tanabe says of his approach, "...the views I favour are the grey mists, the rain-obscured islands and the clouds that hide the details. However much we desire order and clarity in all the details of our lives, there are always unexpected events that cloud and change our course. Life is ragged. The typical weather of the coast is like that, just enough detail to make it interesting but not so clear as to be banal or overwhelming. It can be a metaphor for life."

Behind the selection of work on view is Guest Curator Ian M. Thom, who has included prints that have never been exhibited until now. The exhibition is accompanied by a 72-page catalogue with essays by Curator Ian M. Thom and Curator Christine May.

Takao Tanabe: Printmaker runs from July 1 to October 1, 2023. It is presented with support from the Audain Foundation, Equinox Gallery, and the Mira Godard Gallery.

Takao Tanabe (Canadian, b. 1926) was born in Seal Cove (now Prince Rupert, BC.) He was the son of a commercial fisherman, and summered in fishing camps on the Skeena River, BC during his early years. He studied at the Winnipeg School of Art from 1946 to 1949. He then studied at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. From 1953 to 1955, he travelled in Europe, then came back to Vancouver to build his career as a painter. He moved to Parksville, on Vancouver Island, in 1980. In 2000, the Kelowna Art Gallery organized and circulated a solo exhibition entitled Takao Tanabe: Wet Coasts and Dry Lands, guest curated by Roger Boulet. In addition to a Governor General's Award (2003), Tanabe has been a recipient of two honorary degrees, the Order of British Columbia (1993), and the Order of Canada (1999). Tanabe's work is included in many prestigious public and private collections, including over 120 corporate collections.

The Kelowna Art Gallery is located at 1315 Water Street, in downtown Kelowna, BC.

- 30 -

MEDIA PREVIEW: Receive early access to Takao Tanabe: Printmaker on Thursday, June 29, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Guest Curator Ian M. Thom will be available for interviews. Please RSVP to josh at kelownaartgallery.com<mailto:josh at kelownaartgallery.com> to confirm your attendance and arrival time.

Image Credits

Takao Tanabe at the UBC Okanagan Print Studio in 2010. Photo: Maureen Lisle

Takao Tanabe, Bright Sky, 2010, block print, embossing, 57 x 58 cm. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Gift of the artist, VAG 2011.33.4. Printer: Larua Widmer, UBC Okanagan. Edition size: 4.

Takao Tanabe, Cormorant Island, 2023, 2 plate photgravure, 5 colours applied a la poupee, 68 x 112 cm. Collection of the Kelowna Art Gallery. Purchased with funds from the Kelowna Art Gallery Permanent Collection Reserve, 2023. Printer: Peter Braune, New Leaf Editions, Vancouver. Publisher: West Vancouver Art Museum. Edition size: 25, PP.3, AP 10

Takao Tanabe, Prairie Storm, 1976/2003, lithograph, acrylic wash, 58.6 x 43.4 cm. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Gift of the artist and Anona Thorne, VAG 2022.5.1. Printer: Arched Press, Montreal. Edition size: 30. from lithograph Foothills, 1976: sky plate was unusable; sky was painted with acrylic wash in 2003.

Takao Tanabe, Malacca Dawn, 2004, 4 colour mixed media: woodcut, etching, aquatint, 71.5 x 172.5 cm. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. Gift of the artist and Anona Thorne, VAG 2005.31.1. Printer: Peter Braune, New Leaf Editions, Vancouver. Edition size: 20, AP: 4, PP 2, TP: 2, State I:2.

Takao Tanabe, Nootka Afternoon, 1993, woodblock, 6 blocks, 20 colours, kozo paper, 62 x 85 cm. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of the Artist, VAG 95.10.1.

Printer: Masato Arikushi. Edition size: 50, AP: 5, PP: 1, BAT: 1.

Resources

Exhibition Webpage: https://kelownaartgallery.com/takao-tanabe-printmaker

Mira Godard Gallery: https://godardgallery.com/artists/16-takao-tanabe/

Equinox Gallery: https://www.equinoxgallery.com/our-artists/takao-tanabe/

To arrange for interviews, filming within the exhibition, or for additional high-res images, please contact:

Joshua Desnoyers

Marketing and Events Coordinator

Kelowna Art Gallery

1315 Water Street, Kelowna, BC V1Y 9R3

250-762-2226 ext. 305

josh at kelownaartgallery.com<mailto:josh at kelownaartgallery.com>

www.kelownaartgallery.com<http://www.kelownaartgallery.com>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Media Release -- Takao Tanabe career print retrospective opens in Kelowna.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 184549 bytes
Desc: Media Release -- Takao Tanabe career print retrospective opens in Kelowna.pdf
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment.pdf>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Takao Tanabe at the UBCO Print Studio_2010.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1112857 bytes
Desc: Takao Tanabe at the UBCO Print Studio_2010.jpg
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Takao_Tanabe_Bright_Sky.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 1052754 bytes
Desc: Takao_Tanabe_Bright_Sky.jpg
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment-0001.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Takao_Tanabe_Cormorant Island.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 656480 bytes
Desc: Takao_Tanabe_Cormorant Island.jpg
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment-0002.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Takao_Tanabe_Prairie_Storm.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 583635 bytes
Desc: Takao_Tanabe_Prairie_Storm.jpg
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment-0003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Takao_Tanabe_Malacca_Strait_Dawn.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 910019 bytes
Desc: Takao_Tanabe_Malacca_Strait_Dawn.jpg
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment-0004.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Takao_Tanabe_Nootka_Afternoon.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 844260 bytes
Desc: Takao_Tanabe_Nootka_Afternoon.jpg
URL: <http://lists.museum.bc.ca/pipermail/listserv-museum.bc.ca/attachments/20230628/3167fa7d/attachment-0005.jpg>