Ayomi in NIU

When the NIU Art Museum’s guest curators Helen Merritt and Helen Nagata were planning the exhibition from the Richard F. Grott Family Collection, they found that they would need to have one gallery for the 19th century ukiyo-e prints and another gallery for the 20th century sōsaku hanga and shin hanga prints. In that case, what better sense than to have the museum’s third gallery display a contemporary Japanese exhibition?

We discussed our preferences whether to have an artist do an installation or put together another exhibition to highlight contemporary prints. Several artists and approaches were considered including prints by artist Ayomi Yoshida, fourth generation in the Yoshida printmaking dynasty.

I looked at Ayomi’s handsome web site and the animations of her recent installations and couldn’t help but think about the possibilities of her doing an installation in our curved wall Rotunda Gallery. We could have a print artist do an installation - and have a familial link to our other exhibitions. How synchronous! Amazingly enough, through the internet you can reach almost anyone and soon I had an email response to my inquiry from Ayomi herself.

In the late summer, Ayomi had work to do in the Midwest so offered to stop by and visit in DeKalb so that she and her husband Bidou could view the gallery and we might discuss possibilities for an installation. She was agreeable and intrigued with the space. Ayomi and Bidou brought many beautiful books about the Yoshida family of artists and donated them to the museum’s library. We went to the local Farmer’s Market in Palmer Court and had dinner at the Thai Pavilion in DeKalb before they went to visit Ayomi’s school friend Laura in the southwest suburbs.