Fumiko Amano: Sonic Landscapes, Closing Reception November 11, 2006

Featuring artist talk & live painting by Fumiko Amano & special cello performance by Marina Peterson.

Fumiko Amano, the quintessential Renaissance woman, draws on unique life experiences & all of her creative faculties to produce magical & alluring mosaics of media. Amano is a multi-talented, multi-cultural artist who subtly channels years of interest & dedication to all facets of popular culture into each creation. This tastemaker & siren of the Los Angeles scene holds a mirror to our lives & our city to produce this exceptional collection.

Please join us for a closing reception featuring live painting accompanied by acclaimed cellist, Marina Peterson as she plays improvisations. Peterson is currently a member of Ensemble Noamnesia & Neme. Composers & musicians with whom she has worked include Gene Coleman, Luc Ferrari, David Grubbs, Chao-Ming Tung. She has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of Chicago & a Performer's Certificate from Northern Illinois University. She is Assistant Professor of Performance Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts at Ohio University. Fumiko will begin the evening with a short discussion of the works followed by the live painting & performance.

Free parking is available across the street behind 5858 Wilshire Boulevard . Enter on Stanley Ave.

The Artist
Fumiko Amano was born in Tokyo, Japan in 1968. She has been exploring various mediums to express herself since she was a child. She started taking piano lessons at three, & she was composing music by seven. By the age of ten, Amano published her first poetry book with her own ink drawings. In 1987, she attended Toyo Women's College in Tokyo as an English literature major & joined a theater club in school. At that time, she was fascinated by contemporary theater directed by Yukio Ninagawa & Juro Kara (the most influential Japanese theater directors). This led Amano to move to the United States to study more about contemporary theater arts.

Amano attended the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point where she studied visual art, music recording, theater arts & performing arts for four & a half years. At age 23 she gave her first performance art piece utilizing a big mixed media painting (7' x 35') which was used as a musical score. She graduated from UWSP in 1993 with a BA in Art & Design-Painting/Printmaking. Soon after, she moved to San Francisco where she started incorporating beat poetry, architecture, Japanese comics, dreams & sound into her paintings. In 1997, in search of a new environment to create sonic landscapes, Amano traveled extensively, first to Rio de Janeiro, then on to New York, Miami & Los Angeles where she finally settled down.

Her atmospheric paintings, created as visualizations of sound/dream/organic forms, have been exhibited in San Francisco, New York, L.A., & Korea. Her recent works were exhibited at the Santa Monica Museum of Art, Lawrence Asher Gallery, Gallery Revisited, & LACMA Rental & Sales Gallery. She is a member of the group Pharmaka.

Official Website: http://www.lawrenceasher.com/