Description

Asian Ink Painting w/ Artist Nishiki Sugawara-Beda
Location: Gallery at 3S
Suitable for ages 16+
Participants are invited to join artist Nishiki Sugawara-Beda for a studio workshop exploring the aspects of Asian ink painting.

The workshop starts with a lecture on the formation of Chinese character and the foundation of brush strokes in calligraphy, then moving into some hands-on activities. Next, participants will engage in Japanese calligraphy with a few letters, covering the basic brush strokes, then flowing into each particpant's personal creative project.

Activities involve exploring materials, refinement of technical skills, and personal innovation. About artist Nishiki Sugawara-Beda: Nishiki Sugawara-Beda is a Japanese-American visual artist based in painting and installation. She draws upon her Japanese heritage to explore themes related to culture, language, and spirituality rooted in Zen Buddhism. Connecting across space and time, she experiments in ancient Japanese materials and techniques including Sumi ink, Kakejiku landscapes, and rice paper, to merge them with abstract and expressive forms familiar to the modern Western aesthetic.

Sugawara-Beda exhibits her work in solo and group exhibitions and offers lectures nationally and internationally to promote cultural diversity and exchange. Exhibition venues include the Spartanburg Art Museum (SC), Morris Graves Museum of Art (CA), Dennos Museum (MI), Amos Eno Gallery (NY), and Cris Worley Fine Arts (TX). Publications include New American Paintings, AEQAI, Athenaeum Review, London Post, Art Spiel, and WhiteHot. Awards including a Seed Grant, Diversity Fellowship, International Enhancement Grant, Idaho Arts Fellowship, Sam Taylor Fellowship, Tusen Takk Foundation residency, and Dallas Museum of Art Otis and Velma Davis Dozier Travel Fund have supported her artistic research. In addition to national conferences, including the College Art Association, Sugawara-Beda also gives keynote speeches and workshops to cultural organizations including Pilipino American Unity for Progress, Inc., OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Business Council for the Arts, Dallas. See You There, a full-color art book surveying her work from 2012 to 2020, was published by Execute Magazine in 2021.