Detail: TAI Modern is proud to present Japanese bamboo artist Yufu Shohaku’s first solo exhibition outside of Japan. Also on view in New York are selected works from over 40 bamboo artists working in a broad range of styles and techniques.

Yufu Shohaku, born 1941, is a second-generation bamboo artist from Beppu. Today, he is known for robust and energetic rough-plaited baskets that blend plant roots, half-split chunks of bamboo, and bamboo ropes.

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the magnificent and unusual Meoto Iwa (The Wedded Rocks). Yufu recreates in bamboo these sacred rocks, tied together with a rope, representing the union between Izanagi and Izanami, the two central deities in Japan’s creation myth. The artist spent much of 2020 working on this sculptural homage to connection and new beginnings.