Hiromi_L

Foreign Soil

By tomolennon, 12/15/2010

-Portraits of the prominent and promising artists grown in a foreign land

Date: July 21-26, 2009
Location: Ouchi Gallery, 170 Tillary St. Suite 507, Brooklyn, NY

Statement
Flowers planted in foreign soil often have trouble growing, and like roses they can perish easily. But you can even find flowers growing on rocks.

Tomori’s collection of portraits, Foreign Soil, features five major figures in today’s contemporary art/music scene. Artists who had left their native country of birth and are blooming in a foreign land. A Japanese born jazz pianist Hiromi, graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston and now has obtained a sterling international reputation for her incredible jazz piano technique. Born in Mozambique, raised in Canada, incredibly talented illustrator, Marcos Chin, now resides in the U.S.. An award-winning, perhaps the most awaited illustrator, Yuko Shimizu, was born in Japan and now lives and works in New York. Graduated from Berklee with highest honors, Toru Dodo is another talented jazz pianist who was born in Japan. A young and promising artist, Risa Kusumoto is a truly multi-cultural icon. She was born in Japan and raised in Brazil, Germany and U.S., and now lives in Canada.

They all are flourishing in an urban environment like Toronto and New York; the world’s most diverse/multicultural cites with half its residents born outside the country. These cities have fostered the concept of globalization. Globalization has increased the possibility of understanding among people whose traditional cultures were once estranged from one another. International foods, music, literature and traditions are now more easily consumed, integrated and understood. The building of an artistic cultural identity of the country is based on the respect for cultural diversity. In order to get the soil ready for planting, you must first plow the land because plants can only blossom if they can take in all the water and nutrients that the soil has to offer.

[Venue]
Ouchi Gallery
170 Tillary Street Suite 507
Brooklyn, NY 11201
https://www.min-gei.com
Zank & Mars LLC