(Above: Fans: Four Seasons/Winter, part of Hamanishi Katsunori’s ex libris series of prints.)
By Randi Bjornstad
Thanksgiving gatherings and major football rivalries are out of the way, and now the December holiday season takes over with its nearly month-long frenzy of list-making, shopping, gift-wrapping, decorating, and more feast-planning.
Tired already? The White Lotus Gallery may have just the respite you need to slow down, take a deep breath, and rediscover the harmony between nature and people.
Small Treasures is the title of the gallery’s newest exhibit, and while walking into White Lotus always feels like entering an oasis of calm, this show carries the experience a step further.
House in Tea Field, an etching by Tanaka Ryohei
That’s because “small treasures” really is what this show offers — bookplate-sized prints by Hamanishi Katsunori and tiny etchings by Tanaka Ryohei — that require a close look that shuts out clamor and redirects the mind toward the simpler aspects of the natural world.
Hamanishi has been doing his ex libris prints for more than three decades, often as commissions from clients who want to preserve the interaction between books and art. Tanaka began creating his small etchings out of concern that the simpler aspects of life — small thatched-roof dwellings and villages connected by simple stone paths — were in danger of disappearing, and the harmony of traditional rural existence with them.
Hamanishi, now in his 72nd year, is still active as an artist. Tanaka died in 2019, in his mid-80s.
Small Treasures: Mezzotints by Hamanishi Katsunori / Etchings by Tanaka Ryohei
When: Through Jan. 15, 2022
Where: White Lotus Gallery, 767 Willamette St., Eugene
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
Information: 541-345-3276 or wlotus.com
