Maya Frodeman Gallery is pleased to present In Praise of Shadows, an exhibition of work by Japanese artist Kyoko Ibe. Drawing inspiration from Junichiro Tanizaki’s seminal 1933 essay of the same name, the exhibition explores the subtle interplay of light, shadow, material, and space through Ibe’s pioneering approach to washi, traditional Japanese paper.
For decades, Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows has served as a philosophical guide for Ibe, whose practice centers on the expressive and sculptural possibilities of washi. In this new body of work, the artist returns to what she describes as her “starting point” — both conceptually and formally — revisiting the square compositions through which she first developed the groundbreaking “Ibe Method.” Combining years of technical refinement with renewed experimentation, the exhibition reflects what the artist considers both a beginning and a pinnacle.
Ibe works with recycled gampi washi paper that is over a century old — an extraordinarily rare material prized for its strength and delicate beauty. Because gampi grows only in the wild and cannot be cultivated, it has become increasingly difficult to source. Ibe has used recycled gampi throughout her career, but the supply she now holds is likely the last she will ever have, making its inclusion in this series especially meaningful.
The exhibition also reflects Ibe’s long-standing engagement with Zen philosophy. Beginning with square-on-square compositions, the works gradually evolve toward circular forms and the concept of the ENSO — the Zen circle symbolizing emptiness, completeness, and the universe. She writes in her artist statement, “When two works are placed facing each other with space in between, that empty space becomes a field that stimulates imagination, and the two works begin to connect, forming a single world.”
Central to Ibe’s practice is her collaboration with water, which she describes as a force beyond human control. Rather than imposing form, she allows water to shape the fibers naturally, creating textured surfaces that retain the memory of their formation. The resulting works shift subtly with changes in light, temperature, and humidity, transforming space through washi’s unique ability to absorb and reflect light. Several works incorporate fragments of Japanese text drawn from the artist’s personal archive and her father’s collection. Large singular characters evoke elements of the natural world — the moon, sky, and wind — while smaller flowing scripts reference poetry and diary-like writings, expressing the relationship between nature and human experience.
The works in In Praise of Shadows embody the aesthetic principles Tanizaki articulated nearly a century ago — that beauty exists not within objects themselves, but within the subtle relationships created through shadow and illumination. Using washi’s unique ability to absorb, reflect, and transmit light, Ibe transforms paper into a living surface whose appearance continually changes within its environment. Collectors are invited to experience the works not as static objects, but as companions within daily life
Born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1941, Kyoko Ibe first worked with washi-traditional Japanese hand-made paper-during the 1960s. She is now one of Japan's most senior and respected artists in the medium, creating site-specific installations and theater sets that can fill large architectural spaces, as well as more domestic-scale panels and folding screens fashioned out of dyed and pulped antique documents originally brushed with handwriting in sumi ink. Appointed by the Japanese Government as a Special Advisor for Cultural Exchange, Ibe has worked in many parts of the world as an international ambassador for washi and is well known in the United States for her installations and stage designs. She was a professor at the Kyoto Institute of Technology for ten years and a director for the Japan Paper Academy for 25. She has received many awards, nationally and internationally; and was selected to be a Cultural Ambassador in 2009 by the Agency of Cultural Affairs of Japan.
