Shigeki Kuroda
Born: 1953 in Yokohama, Japan
Medium: Etching, drypoint, mezzotint & aquatint. Mixed media watercolor paintings

Kuroda is an exciting artist with a distinctive style and subject matter all his own. After graduating from Tama Art University, he began creating intaglio prints in 1976. He did further study in the United States in 1984, under the auspices of a Japanese Government Fellowship.

The works are readily recognizable, usually depicting blurred riders on bicycles, carrying umbrellas. Kuroda has been exploring this theme in a variety of ways, combining the sharp lines of drypoint etching with the softer tones and textures of aquatint, to create vivid prints.

Although the figures remain similar in each work, the mood is altered by the backgrounds. In each, the artist gives the viewer a sense of the hurried speed of the cyclists, while exploring variations in line, color, texture, composition, mood, and the use of secondary imagery. He says the theme began as an exploration of the circle—horizontal in the umbrella or vertical in the wheel.

Since 2003, Kuroda has done some small prints of flowers, birds and other animals, occasionally with mezzotint. By different techniques applied to a copper plate, Kuroda manages to combine effects in such a fashion as to enchant the viewer. His work has received critical acclaim wherever he has exhibited--both in Japan and abroad. He continues to live with his family in Kanagawa, and travels extensively in the United States and Europe.


Exhibitions:
CWAJ Print Show, Tokyo
Yokohama
Lincoln, Massachusetts
Print Biennal--Bradford, England
Print Biennal--Ljubljana, Yugoslavia
Grenchen, Switzerland
Cleveland, Ohio
Boston, Massachusetts
Seattle, Washington
San Francisco, California
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Bangladesh
The Ren Brown Collection, Bodega Bay, CA

Collections:
Cleveland Museum of Art
Honolulu Academy of Art
Tochigi Museum of Modern Art, Japan
Chicago Art Institute
De Cordova Museum, Massachusetts
British Museum, London
Yokohama City Gallery
Achenbach Foundation, San Francisco