Jave Yoshimoto: The Fragile World

Jave Yoshimoto is a visual artist and educator based in Omaha, Nebraska. He received his BA in University of California Santa Barbara, his MA in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and his MFA from Syracuse University. He believes in creating works that are sincere and true to his authentic self, and teaches his students to do the same at University of Nebraska at Omaha.

This exhibition focuses on "disaster series" which was inspired by the great Japanese earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. After receiving the news and observing the devastation of the country where he was initially born, he collected images and collaged a composition to pay honor and homage to those who lost their homes, livelihood and lives that day. The end result was a 30 feet long scroll painting on paper completed in gouache, with large, flat color sections that also was inspired by the aesthetics traditional Japanese woodblock prints. He believes that tragedies such as this speaks on the narratives of humanity that we face in the wake of catastrophes, and wish to bring awareness to the history of the event and inspire to help those in need to this day.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website