An exhibition of the distinguished Japanese-American artist Masami Teraoka’s work will open Friday, September 17 at the Carleton College Art Gallery. The exhibition, titled “Perils and Pleasures: Tales from Masami Teraoka 1976-2003,” is free and open to the public.
Coming of age in the 1960s, Teraoka was influenced by the then-flourishing pop art movement. In his early work he expressed this influence by turning to the Japanese tradition of Ukiyo-e or wood block printing, which was originally a popular art form. Teraoka’s early works are characterized by great wit, including the series “McDonalds Hamburgers Invading Japan” and “31 Flavors Invading Japan.” In the 1980s his work took a darker tone, making use of Kabuki imagery to comment on the AIDS crisis. His work took a radical turn in the 1990s, when Teraoka switched from wood block imagery to the Christian allegorical imagery of medieval Europe. His more recent works have continued in the darker tone of the 1980s, with commentary on political and church scandals, as well as the impact of biotechnology.
Teraoka was born in Japan and remained there until 1959, when he received a B.A. in aesthetics from Kwansei Gakuin University. He then moved to Los Angeles to continue his studies at the Otis Art Institute, where he received a B.A. and M.F.A. He has lived in Hawaii since 1980. His work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
The exhibition runs from September 17 through November 17. The Carleton College Art Gallery is open daily at noon and closes at 6 p.m. Monday-Wednesday, 10 p.m. Thursday-Friday, and 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The Art Gallery has limited disability accessibility. For more information or disability accommodations, call the Art Gallery at (507) 646-4342.
