Exhibition "Between black & white" was held at the VSUES Museum: graphics by Japanese designer Kobayashi Ikki

The exhibition of works by Kobayashi Ikki, which opened on March 15 in the halls of the VSUES Museum and Exhibition Complex, can be considered a continuation of acquaintance with contemporary authors working in the field of graphic design, lettering, and calligraphy. This acquaintance began in 2014 with the Japanese Foundation's traveling exhibition "Sharaku in the Interpretation of Contemporary Japanese Artists", when posters of leading Japanese designers were first shown in Vladivostok: Ikko Tanaka, Shuzo Kato, Yoshio Hayakawa, Tadanori Yuko and other authors.

The exhibition "Between black & white" by Kobayashi Ikki represents one of the directions in which graphic design in Japan is developing today. On the one hand, the designer offers modern, bold, dynamic forms, referring, for example, to street art, on the other hand, he clearly maintains a connection with traditional Japanese art.

The exposition features twenty graphic works, mostly in large format. For the first time in Russia, they were shown in 2019 at the Typomania international festival in Moscow. In Vladivostok, viewers were acquainted with the work of Kobayashi Ikka in 2020 at Vladivostok Design Week:

- VSUES has been training graphic designers for many years, and this year has opened a digital design program. The exhibition has a great professional and educational potential, it will be of interest to both students and a wide range of lovers of contemporary art and design,”emphasizes Nadezhda Sukhareva, director of the VSUES Museum and Exhibition Complex.

Ikki himself calls stencils for dyeing katazome fabrics one of his creative sources. The connection of the designer with tradition can be traced at the level of technology - all of his works Kobayashi Ikki draws by hand, ink or marker, he believes that only handwork allows you to completely keep the shape under control.

The VSUES Museum thanks the Typomania festival, Vladivostok Design Week and personally Anastasia Antoshkina and Vyacheslav Furashov for their assistance in holding the exhibition.