Sarah Brayer (born May 25, 1957) is an American artist who works in both Japan and the United States. She is internationally known for her poured washi paperworks, aquatint and woodblock prints. In 2013 Japan's Ministry of Culture awarded Sarah its Bunkacho Chokan Hyosho ("Commissioner of Culture Award") for dissemination of Japanese culture abroad through her creations in Echizen washi. She currently resides in Kyoto, Japan and New York, U.S.A.
Sarah Brayer's art is in the collections of the British Museum,River Mist, at the British Museum the Smithsonian Institution's Sackler Gallery, and the American Embassy in Tokyo. Brayer was featured at the TED Conference "The Young, the Wise, the Undiscovered" in Tokyo in June 2012.
Arriving in Kyoto Kyoto in 1980, Brayer studied etching with Yoshiko Fukuda and Japanese woodblock printing with Tōshi Yoshida (1911–1996) the son of influential woodblock artist Hiroshi Yoshida (1876–1950). Her interest in color gradation was piqued by the woodblock technique, and she subsequently applied similar gradations to her color aquatints. In 1986 Brayer began making large-scale paperworks in the historic paper village of Imadate, Echizen, Japan.
Influences and early works
In the 70's Brayer became interested in Japanese aesthetics through the color aquatints of Mary Cassatt, and Raku-style ceramics. Arriving in Japan in 1979, she studied etching with Yoshiko Fukuda (1937–1986) and Japanese woodblock printing with Toshi Yoshida (1911–1996). In 2007, she was honored as the first western woman artist to have her work on the cover of the CWAJ Print Show catalog, the premier contemporary Japanese print show in Tokyo.
In 1985, Brayer exhibited at the Ronin Gallery in New York, and was reviewed in the NY Times, which noted Day Glow, a large, soft-ground aquatint of Charles Street in New York City that made striking use of Oriental techniques to catch dawn in lower Manhattan.New York Times, March 22, 1985. In 1986 she opened her own print studio in an old kimono weaving factory in Kyoto. That same year she discovered the art of poured washi, and her interest in this technique led her to the historic washi paper center of Echizen in Fukui prefecture. She has been working in the village of Echizen ever since; the only non-Japanese artist who has worked in this 800-year-old village, home to living national treasure paper-makers. She is also the only westerner to work there continuously.Japanese Prints at the Verne collection, September 15, 2010 In 1999, she received a grant from the College Women's Association of Japan (CWAJ), which enabled her to develop a pioneering print technique of using washi Japanese paper as a printing medium.Japan Times Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003. Brayer's early works were realistic cityscapes and landscapes, figures or pathways through the snow. With continued experimentation, her imagery has become more abstract: the flow of a waterfall, the curve of a wave, or the passage of light through clouds.
Recognitions
In 2013 Japan’s Ministry of Culture awarded Sarah its Bunkacho Chokan Hyosho (“Commissioner’s Award”) for dissemination of Japanese culture abroad through her paper creations in Echizen washi. Sarah has been recognized in Japan as the first artist ever invited to exhibit at Byodoin Temple, a World Heritage site dating from the Heian period, as part of Kyoto’s 1200-year celebration in 1992.
Collections The Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art: Oceanic Moon (2012 luminescent paperwork mural) The British Museum: Sojourn (1995 paperwork scroll), Dayglow (1984 aquatint), River Mist Kyoto (1982 woodblock), Yukata (1987 aquatint) The Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian: First Snow (‘91 aquatint), Expanse (‘95 aquatint) The Oregon Art Institute: Japanese Bath (‘86 aquatint) Zimmerli Art Museum: City Pearls (‘86 aquatint), City Light (‘85 woodblock print), Yellow Taxi (’93 paperwork/lithograph), Surge (‘95 editioned paperwork) Cincinnati Museum: Mankai (‘99 collagraph) Rochester Memorial Art Gallery: Mikazuki (’07 aquatint/paperwork), Yellow Taxi (’93 paperwork/lithograph), Spring Rice (‘82 aquatint), Cedar Rapids Museum of Art: Hint of Red (‘09 aquatint/paperwork) Smith College Museum of Art: Moontrance (‘00 lithograph) Shimonoseki Art Museum: Shimonoseki Pearls (’05 paperwork) Worcester Art Museum: Taki (’05 aquatint), Kyoto Snowfall (’81 aquatint) U.S. State Department: Dayglow (‘84 aquatint) U.S. Embassy, Tokyo: Kyoto Snowfall (‘81 aquatint) Newark Public Library: City Jewels (’86 aquatint), Moontrance (‘00 lithograph) American College Board Collection: Dayglow (‘84 aquatint) Johns Hopkins Hospitals: Ruby’s Paradise (‘93 paperwork) University Hospitals, Cleveland: Going Places (commissioned mural), Schoolgirls (‘86 aquatint), Schoolboys (‘86 aquatint), Blue Kyoto (‘87 aquatint) Citibank, Tokyo: Bather (‘88 lithograph) TRW, Los Angeles: Together (‘85 aquatint) RJ Reynolds: City Pearls (‘86 aquatint) Ozumo, San Francisco: Ryoanji Pools (‘04 paperwork), Source (‘04 paperwork) Ozumo, Oakland: Blue Surge (‘04 paperwork), Blue Moon (‘08 paperwork), Katsura Squares (‘08 paperwork)
Solo exhibitions 2014 The Castellani Museum of Art, Niagara University 2013 The Verne Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio 2010 Luminosity: Night Paperworks, Kyoto 2010 The Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, California 2010 Art in June, Rochester, New York 2010 30 Years of Art in Kyoto 2007 The Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, California 2007 Gallery Bonten, Shimonoseki, Japan 2007 Round the Horn, Nantucket 2006 Whisper to the Moon, Kyoto 2005 The Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay 2005 Gallery Bonten, Shimonoseki 2004 Azuma Gallery, Seattle 2004 Tokyo American Club 2004 Esmay Fine Art, Rochester 2004 Ronin Gallery, New York 2002 Kato Gallery, Tokyo 2002 The Tolman Collection, Tokyo 2001 Hanga Ten, London, England 2001 Beatrice Royal Gallery, Eastridge, England 2000 Takashimaya Gallery, Yokohama 2000 Tokyo American Club 2000 The Tolman Collection, Tokyo 1999 The Ren Brown Collection 1999 Gallery Bonten, Shimonoseki, Japan 1998 Gallery Rewdex, Kyoto 1997 The Tolman Collection, Tokyo 1997 Ars Locus Gallery, Kyoto 1996 Ronin Gallery, New York 1996 Tokyo American Club, Tokyo 1996 Gallery Bonten, Shimonoseki, Japan 1995 Dieu Donne Gallery, New York 1995 WICE Artspace, Paris 1995 Daimaru Gallery, Osaka, Japan 1995 Kanda Gallery, Okinawa, Japan 1994 Takashimaya Gallery, Yokohama, Japan 1994 Shoestring Gallery, Rochester, New York 1994 A Sense of Place, The Verne Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio 1993 Takashimaya Gallery, Tamagawa, Tokyo, Japan 1993 Tokyo American Club, Tokyo, Japan 1993 The Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, California 1993 Galeries Ann Monnet, Kyoto, Japan 1992 Sarah Brayer at Byodoin Temple Invitational honoring Kyoto’s 1200th year 1992 Azuma Gallery, Seattle, Washington 1992 Gallery Cocteau, Kyoto, Japan 1992 Shoestring Gallery, Rochester, New York 1992 Kanda Gallery, Okinawa, Japan 1991 Recollections: Tokyo American Club 1991 Takashimaya Gallery, Yokohama 1991 Daimaru Gallery, Osaka, Japan 1991 Takashimaya Gallery, Tamagawa, Tokyo 1990 Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, Invitational 1990 Ronin Gallery, New York 1990 Shoestring Gallery, Rochester, New York 1989 Kato Gallery, Tokyo 1989 Gallery Blanche, Osaka 1989 Kintetsu Gallery, Kyoto 1989 Tokyo American Club, Tokyo 1989 Gallery San, Kyoto 1988 The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan 1988 April Sgro-Riddle Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1988 Daimaru Gallery, Kobe, Japan 1988 Shukugawa Gallery, Shukugawa, Japan 1987 Sumi Arts, Hong Kong 1987 The Japanese Bath and other Landscapes Carter Arcand Gallery, Portland 1987 Kato Gallery, Kobe, Japan
Selected group exhibitions 2018 MOON, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca NY 2014 Celestial Threads: The Asian Art Museum, San Francisco 2011 The William J. Dane Fine Print Collection, Newark Public Library 2009 IMPACT the Big Print, Orange Coast College, Costa Mesa, Cal. Curated by Donna Westerman 2009 WOOD. METAL. STONE: Contemporary Japanese prints The Flinn Gallery, Greenwich Connecticut 2007 Catalogue Cover artist and Poster artist, for the 52nd CWAJ Print Show, Tokyo, Japan 2005 The Color of Night: How Artists Work with Darkness, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University 2003 Japan Through Western Eyes, The Morikami Museum, Del Ray Beach, Florida 2003 Snow in Winter: Ukiyo-e and Contemporary Prints from Japan, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London 2003 1853–2003: A Sesquicentennial Salute to Commerce and Cultural Exchange between Japan and the USA, the Newark Public Library, Newark NJ 2002 Rags to Riches: 25 Years of Paper Art from Dieu Donne Papermill: Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Travelling to Mariana Kistler-Beach Museum of Art and the Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY 2001 Rags to Riches: 25 Years of Paper Art from Dieu Donne Papermill, Kresge Art Museum, Michigan; Maryland Institute College of Art 1999 Miyabi: a Celebration of Beauty by Five American Artists of Kyoto, Sogetsu Museum, Tokyo. Produced by the Tolman Collection 1997 Across Cultures: Five Contemporary Artists from Japan, Allen Memorial Museum, Oberlin, Ohio 1995 Out of the Drawing Room, Recent Acquisitions: Works on Paper by Women Artists, The Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester 1995 Works on Paper The Verne Collection, New York 1994 The Verne Collection, Cleveland, Ohio 1992 Almost a Century after Helen Hyde and Bertha Lum, the Mitzie Verne Collection, Cleveland 1992 Accent on Paper: 15 Years at the Dieu Donne Papermill Lintas Worldwide, New York 1990 Intaglio Printing in the 1980s The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 1988 Relief Printing in the 1980s The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University. Curated by Trudy Hansen 1987 Mary Ryan Gallery, New York 1987 Eight Artists from Kyoto Takashimaya Gallery, Yokohama 1987 Prints from the Yoshida Studio, Kabutoya Gallery, Tokyo 1986 "Curator’s Choice" Portland Art Institute, Oregon 1986 Saga Print Annual New York 1986 The Bank of Tokyo, Hong Kong 1986 April Sgro-Riddle Gallery, Los Angeles 1985 50/50 Monoprints-Prints Montgomery College 1984 The Caraccio Collection, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster 1984 American Painters from Kyoto, Ronin Gallery, New York 1984 Foreign Artists in Kyoto Hankyu Gallery, Senri Osaka 1982–2014 The College Women’s Association of Japan Print Show Tokyo 1998–2014 The New York Print Fair, the Armory, New York City 1982–2010 Kyoto Etching Association Annual Kyoto City Art Center
Publications 2018 Sarah Brayer: The Complete Prints 1980–2018 2011 Cover Art, Kyoto Journal, Volume 76 2009 Cover Art, Kyoto Journal, Volume 73 2007 Cover art, 52nd CWAJ Print Show catalog. Tokyo Poster and postcard for CWAJ Print Show, Tokyo. Nick Jones, “Paper Moon” In Touch (TAC magazine), October 2007. Tokyo “Woman By the Sea”cover art, novel in Hebrew by Itai Kohavi, Tel Aviv 2006 Hand Papermaking summer 2006, noted exhibitions: Sarah Brayer 2005 April Vollmer, Intersections of East and West: Contemporary Printmakers in Japan, Contemporary Impressions, Spring 2005. “City Pearls” printed in the Zimmerli Journal 3, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University of NJ. "Woman By the Sea” cover art for Shakespeare's Will by Vern Thiessen, Canada Playwrights 2003 Rosemary T. Smith, Japan Through Western Eyes, 1854 to the Present, The Morikami Museum, Del Ray Beach, Florida CWAJ print artists and scholars create a good impression, The Japan Times, October 15, 2003 Kyoto Shimbun, feature article Nov. 11, 2003 2002 Angela Jeffs, Celebrating “washi” in tune with Kyoto winters, The Japan Times, Nov. 30, 2002 Dai-ichi Seimei Hall, cover art, The Rubio Quartet and Yoshiko Endo Tokyo American Club magazine “47th Annual Print Show” 2002 Kyoto Journal, inside art