23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition
Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Date: June 15 2024
Hosted by: Japan International Art Exchange Committee, chair Katsu Shimmin
Supported by: Shimmin Garou
Principal Exhibition Sponsors: Royal Thai Embassy, Japan-China Association
Australian Artistic Advisors: Peteris and Jillian Ciemitis
Links:
Australian Embassy, Tokyo: https://japan.embassy.gov.au/tkyo/events.html
AJET CONNECT magazine (Japan publication): https://connect.ajet.net/2024/06/02/composing-a-sense-of-place-overseas/
The Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition is an annual invitation-only art and cultural exchange exhibition that has taken place in Japan since 2000. In 2024, the Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition Committee hosts the Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition featuring almost 350 artworks from over 20 countries at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.
Fourteen Australiasian artists are representing Australian and New Zealand in the 2024 exhibition:
Jordan Andreotta (WA)
Jill Ansell (WA)
Michelle Campbell (WA)
Jillian Ciemitis (WA)
Peteris Ciemitis (WA)
Desiree Crossing (WA)
Amy Dynan (NSW)
Helen Forbes (WA)
James Gardiner (NSW)
Andrew McDonald (WA)
Jane Pestell-Litten (NZ)
Ralph Stanton (NSW)
Jana Vodesil-Baruffi (WA)
Geoffrey Wake (WA)
The artists profiles and artworks are provided on the following pages.
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Jordan Andreotta
Jordan Andreotta is a Perth based artist and teacher of the Visual Arts, specialising in a range of mediums including drawing, painting, digital and mural art. His artistic practice revolves around the exploration of hidden meanings through the delicate interplay of objects and fabric. Jordan is captivated by the potential of drapery to reveal and conceal, to evoke a sense of mystery and introspection. By enshrouding everyday objects in flowing folds of fabric, Jordan invites viewers to delve beyond the surface and embark on a visual journey of discovery. The drape acts as a metaphorical veil, hinting at the hidden narratives and emotions that lie beneath the tangible world. Through the meticulous rendering of intricate folds, shadows, and textures, Jordan strives to capture the essence of these concealed meanings. Each brushstroke serves as a conduit for the intangible, bringing to life the ethereal qualities that reside within the objects.
https://www.jordanandreottaart.com
Insta: @jordanandreottaart
Draped Chair
63cm x 96cm, Oil Paint on Board
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Jill Ansell
Jill Ansell is a 2023 Archibald Prize finalist. She was also a recent finalist in the Portia Geach Portrait Award and the Collie Art Prize. She has twice been a finalist in the Lester Portrait Prize and the Doug Moran Portrait Prize. Her work has received many Awards including the Victoria Park Art Award, York Art Award, the BankWest Open Art Award, the Town of Cambridge Art Award, and the Town of Vincent Art Award. Her work is held in public and private collections, both nationally and internationally.
Jill works across a wide range of subjects, but her favourite subject is the portrait. Her portraits typically engage the viewer with their warm humanity. Her recent work in assemblage carefully weaves real objects and oil portrait together into an intriguing glimpse into the intimate world of the subject.
Insta: @jillansellartist
No Fixed Address
10.8cm x 16.5 cm Oil on Board and found object assemblage in an old tobacco tin
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Michelle Campbell
Michelle Campbell is primarily a portrait and urban landscape painter based in Perth, Western Australia. While the themes of her paintings such as urbanisation and community are inspired by the place she is now, Michelle continues to be influenced by the New Zealand painters she grew up with. Both places have strong light and it is this as well as form, colour and line Michelle responds to.
Michelle held solo exhibitions in 2019 and 2021, incorporating sound such as recorded histories of community members and urban soundscapes alongside the paintings. Michelle has been a finalist in multiple local and national Australian awards and won the City of Belmont Art Award in 2015. Her paintings are held in the collections of City of Armadale and City of Belmont, WA.
Insta: @michellecampbell4025
Urban Green
66 x 100 cm, oil on canvas
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Jillian Ciemitis
Jillian Ciemitis is a West Australian based artist whose work focuses on photography and printmaking, examining issues of identity and place. Holding a Bachelor of Contemporary Arts in Visual Arts and Photomedia (Edith Cowan University), Jillian is a multi-award winning artist, notably receiving the WA Print Media Award (2012) and twice finalist in the prestigious National FAC Print Award.
Her work examines the condition of the individual through both documented and invented narratives, which she extends further by transposition on her environmental and urban imagery. Jillian’s pieces are imbued with an atmosphere and intensity, which is applied to a range of subject matter, the banal, the incidental and the secret.
Jillian’s international projects include the 2017 Venice Biennale Collateral Program, the 18th Asian Art Biennale in Bangladesh, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, the G20 Summit International Art Exhibition in Hangzhou, China, and recently the Southern Vermont Art Center, USA.
Her artwork is included in various permanent collections in both Australia and overseas, from Edith Cowan University’s art collection, Australia to Qianjang International Art Museum, China and various others.
Insta: @jillianciemitis
(top) Dialogue, screenprint 45cm x 60cm
(bottom} A Story of Four Parts screenprint 45cm x 60cm
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Peteris Ciemitis
Peteris (Peter) Ciemitis is an Australian artist acknowledged for portraiture and his interpretations of landscape and place. His works are held in major collections, from the National Portrait Gallery of Australia, the Hangzhou Qianjiang International Art Museum, China, the National Museum of Art in Latvia, and numerous public and private collections in Australia.
He has featured in Australia’s national portraiture prizes. He was winner of the Lester Prize for Portraiture in 2010, and has been a multi-finalist in the coveted Archibald Prize.
Peteris has participated in major International Art Biennales including the Qingdao Biennale (2014), the collateral program of the Venice Biennale (2017) and the 18th Asian Art Biennale in Dhaka (2018). He has featured in the “Latviešu Māksla Trimdā” exhibition in the National Museum of Art in Latvia (2013), in five International Art Exchange exhibitions in Tokyo, and represented Australia in the and the International Shiva Festival in India (2018).
He is Artistic Advisor to the Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition Preparatory Committee, and has served as co-Chair of the City of Perth Cultural Advisory Committee, Chair of the Community Arts Network of Western Australia, and panel member of the Arts WA Arts Investment Panel.
Insta: @peteris_ciemitis_art
LOC1132(1) (diptych L) pen and ink/giclee on Hahnemuhle 96cm x 72cm
LOC1132(2) (diptych R) pen and ink/giclee on Hahnemuhle 96cm x 72cm
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Desiree Crossing
Desiree Crossing is an Australian artist, based in Perth, WA. Specialising in portraiture, Crossing’s sumptuous oil painting speak to classical painting traditions, whilst embodying an unmistakably contemporary spirit. Crossing has undertaken two artist residencies in Italy, and was Artist in Residence at Santa Maria College, 2023. She has been a finalist in many prestigious art awards including the ARC Salon, Portia Geach Memorial Award, Archibald Prize Salon de Refuses and was recipient of the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Lester Prize. Crossing exhibits regularly in Australia and abroad, her work is held in private and government collections.
https://www.desireecrossing.com.au
Insta: @desireecrossing
The Night Commute
78 cm x 98 cm, Oil on canvas
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Amy Dynan
I am a Sydney-based artist best known for my dramatic landscapes that merge realism with abstract sensibilities to document sublimity in nature. Using pastels and oils, my aesthetic evokes the sublime to inspire a sense of love and care for environment beyond the human. I am curious about how we encounter sublime moments and the reverence that emerges through relationship with the landscape and the deeper parts of ourselves.
I have a Bachelor of Art History, Master of Contemporary Art and Master of Fine Arts (Research) from the University of Sydney. I have exhibited in public, commercial and regional galleries since 2012, and been a finalist in numerous art prizes including the Dobell Art Prize, Adelaide Perry Prize, Doug Moran Portrait Prize and Black Swan Prize. I have been selected for residencies at Bundanon Trust, Tweed Regional Gallery, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (Hill End AiR), Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery and international residencies in France and Norway. I am represented by Stanley Street Gallery.
Insta: @amydynan_artist
Day’s close
pastel on paper, 75cm x 100cm
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Helen Forbes
Helen Forbes studied Fine Art at Perth Technical College from 1962-66, and works from PSAS Studios in Fremantle WA. She has been dedicated to her art practice all her life. She has participated in numerous Solo, shared and Group Shows in Melbourne and Perth.
In 2005 Helen won the Cossack Contemporary Art Award and in 2007 the Cossack Abstract Art Award. Corporate and Private Collections and Commissions include Aarchhon WA Pty Ltd, Horizon Power, Dampier Port Authority, Rockman’s Regency Hotel Melbourne, Potpouri Prints, Hoads and Crowther Prints Melbourne. Helen’s work is included in many private collections both in Australia, Europe and USA.
Helen uses geometric and textured, abstract forms plus scraffito and graphite pencil to create her work. Her materials include synthetic polymer, kaolin clay, acrylic paint, jute, string and beaten tin. She is fascinated by using recycled and industrial materials to create works of an almost metaphysical nature. The texture and the crackle medium represent the vibrations that run through nature. She is inspired by nature but her work comes entirely from within. She frequently uses the circle (always hand drawn) to represent wholeness and inclusion.
Insta: @helenforbesartist
A Constant State of Being
Giclee, 60 x 84 cm
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
James Gardiner
My art focuses on multi-perspectival perception and consciousness. Imbibing artworks with ambiguity - portrait or landscape, elevation or plan, present or future. The intention is to produce an enigmatic ‘conscious landscape’.
These artworks begin with automatic drawing, starting without a plan and allowing an artwork to emerge. I pay particular attention to Pareidolia, this phenomenon, such as seeing a rabbit in the clouds, is a result of the human affinity to pattern recognition. The more an artwork can ‘throw’ these ambiguous pareidolia artifacts, which are unique in each viewer, the better for the subsequent artwork. A fractured grid is further used to reinforce the perceptual flip between portrait and landscape readings, keeping the artwork alive.
Select drawings are further developed into three dimensional artworks on my robotic cutting machine (CNC router). This cutting process introduces a new layer of abstraction. By working with the CNC machine in a non-conventional, constant stop-start iterative process, I can be present to what arises, reintroducing my hand and eye into the process. As with the automatic drawing, I allow the CNC artwork to reveal itself through this collaboration with the machine, allowing for a flow of infinite possibilities to unfold.
Insta: @fahnjim
Presence Pr24-01
76 h x 84 w x 5cm d
Presence Pr24-02
76 h x 84 w x 5cm d
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Andrew HC McDonald
Andrew HC McDonald was born in the small town of Shackleton in the Wheatbelt of Western Australia. He is a photographer, a comedian, story teller and visual artist, particularly as a printmaker. He currently works at Curtin University.
Insta: @AHC_mcdonald
Supply Chain
56cm x 76cm, Relief ink on watercolour paper
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Jane Pestell-Litten
Perth-born Jane Pestell-Litten has spent the last two decades embracing a successful career as a trans-Tasman painter based in Queenstown, New Zealand. She is a contemporary predominantly figurative and portrait artist working primarily in oils and painting in the style of the Photorealist movement. With an eye for detail she is passionate about capturing the brilliance of light and the individuality of the sitter or figure in her works.
Jane’s ability to strike a fine balance between depicting the actuality of what the eye can see, whilst also leaving space for subject ambiguity to enable individual interpretation, sees her work in high demand.
Her work has featured in several leading Australian and International Portrait Awards, multi finalisting in the Black Swan (Lester), Portia Geach Portrait Prize, Doug Moran Portrait Prize and American Society of Portrait Awards. Examples of Janes portraiture is found in numerous public collections such as the Australian Film and Television Association, Government House (WA), Royal Thai Consulate as well as notable private collections nationally and internationally. Jane works exclusively full-time as a commissioned artist.
Insta: @pestelllitten
Portrait of The Blue Door
Oil on Linen 75cm x 75cm
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Ralph Stanton
Ralph Stanton is an Australian abstract painter. Trained as an architect and practising in Perth, he now lives in Sydney. He has worked and exhibited paintings regularly since 1996.
His work is primarily about the light we seek. It reflects a feeling that the light is ephemeral, appearing indirectly in luminous patterns playing on the surface. The painting becomes like a piece of jewellery, beautiful in itself, without the need to tell a story.
“Ralph Stanton’s canvases also celebrate paint. He lays down rich textures that explore the physicality of the medium. His works call to the viewer from a distance while close inspection rewards us with glimpses of underlying activity just beneath the surface, the memory of another idea perhaps. It is the process of painting, the layering of colour invite tactile inspection; but when we move closer we don’t touch, instead we seem to fall into infinity.”* *“Art Seen In Western Australia” by Judith McGrath
Finalist in the Fisher’s Ghost Award 202; Articles in Art Almanac magazine September 2021 and in Art Edit Magazine January 2020 and 2019 – Spring edition. Collections: King Edward Hospital, Claremont Medical Centre and Maurice Zeffert Home; Private collections: Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, London, Nelson NZ, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong and Zurich.
Insta: @ralphstanton1
Before the Dawn
Acrylic on Canvas, 100 x 80
Receding Light
Acrylic on Canvas, 100 x 80
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Jana Vodesil-Baruffi
Born in the Czech Republic during the communist era and from childhood developed an interest in art, sport and nature. After finishing five years of study as an Interior Designer, I escaped to the West in 1981. From 1989 to 2001 I ran ‘Jana’s Interiors' specialising in murals and trompe l’oeils. In 2010 I established Metamorphosis Art Studio/Gallery to work and display my work. I am a member of the West Australian Portrait group and founding member of Contemporary Australian Surrealists Movement. Art gives me an opportunity to wordlessly express feelings and my views on life and environment. I’ve shared these works in over 20 solo exhibitions, winning many competitions and awards. Major awards: 6 x finalist in The Lester Prize and winner in 2017. Finalist in Darling Portrait Prize, at The National Portrait Gallery in 2020. 1st place for portrait, 2nd for self portrait and 2nd for fantasy in American Art Awards.
Insta: @jana_vb_art
Cure
61cm x 91cm oil on canvas,
Dreaming
61cm x 91cm oil on canvas
23rd Japan International Art Exchange Exhibition - Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Geoffrey Wake
Geoffrey Wake is a leading Western Australian artist who has made significant contribution to the local and national arts scene.
Born in Perth in 1944, Wake completed a Diploma in Painting at Perth Technical College in 1965. During his early career, he held three individual exhibitions at the iconic Skinner Galleries (1971, 73 and 75). He also won a prestigious six-month residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris, awarded by the Power Institute.
He has held 14 solo exhibitions, 10 shared exhibitions and has participated in 30 group shows in Perth and the Eastern States of Australia. He held a previous solo exhibition at PS Art Space in 2013. He has worked as a TAFE lecturer and founded a business running art tours locally and overseas.
Wake’s work is represented in collections including the Art Gallery of Western Australia, University of Western Australia, Curtin University, City of Fremantle, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority, Skinner Collection, Horn Collection, Carnegie Collection, and many other institutional and private collections Nationally.
Insta: @geoff_wake
Embers
60cm x 75cm Giclee Print