Portland Japanese Garden hosted a webinar offering professional and personal insights into the evolving dynamics of the bamboo art form while taking viewers on an immersive journey across the techniques and minds of its masters.
Bamboo represents a millennia-old cultural symbol for vitality, suppleness, and strength – bending, not breaking under adversity. Like many other traditional crafts, bamboo basketry, once woven into the cultural fabric of everyday life has dwindled amid rapid modernization. Bamboo artistry in Japan is no exception to this trend, and yet mirroring the resilience of bamboo itself, contemporary craftsmen have transformed this art form by redefining the entire ecosystem in which works are produced, traded, and revered.
In association with our show, Art of Vitality: Peter Shinbach Bamboo Art Collection in the Tanabe Gallery, Portland Japanese Garden was honored to host an intimate conversation between Margo Thoma, director of TAI Modern and an expert known for expanding our contemporary understanding of Japanese bamboo art, and Peter Shinbach, a local collector with exquisite taste for master craftsmanship in bamboo. The conversation was moderated by Portland Japanese Garden’s Arlene Schnitzer Curator of Culture, Art, and Education Aki Nakanishi.