Detail: 2017 is an important year for Japanese bamboo art. It is the 50th anniversary of Shono Shounsai being appointed a Living National Treasure, becoming the first bamboo artist to receive this distinction. 2017 is the also the year that the Metropolitan Museum of Art will open Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection, an exhibition featuring works drawn from one of the world’s finest collections of bamboo baskets and sculpture. 50 years ago, even 20 ago, Japanese bamboo art was almost unknown in the United States. The thought that their artform would be honored with a show at America’s preeminent art museum would have seemed like a pipe-dream to most bamboo artists.

2017 is an important anniversary for TAI Modern as well. In 1997, Robert Coffland and Mary Kahlenberg, the founders of TAI Gallery, first began representing bamboo artists. We are proud that the relationships forged 20 years ago are still strong today. We look forward to our next 20 years.

So, in celebration of this momentous year, TAI Modern will be presenting masterworks of Japanese bamboo art at Joan B Mirviss LTD in New York’s Upper East Side. Joan Mirviss is America’s foremost dealer of contemporary Japanese ceramics, and her exquisitely designed gallery will be a perfect setting for our selection of contemporary and historic works by 50 of the artform’s most talented artists. Our show will coincide with the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition, and we see it as a celebration of the esteem bamboo art has earned in the United States over the last twenty years.

TAI Modern has assembled the finest examples currently available of historically important bamboo artists as well as contemporary masters. Some of this show’s highlights are masterworks by seldom seen artists Ito Nobukata and Ishakawa Shoun, an early large scale sculpture by Yako Hodo, a rare double banded sculpture by Torii Ippo, and an organic vessel in Tanabe Yota’s signature style. Multiple generations of the famous lineages of Tanabe Chikuunsai and Hayakawa Shokosai will be represented, and we will have examples of work by all six of the bamboo artists to be named Living National Treasures.

The gallery will be open Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 6:00 p.m