The Art of Washi - A Conversation with Rei Ukon

Lehigh Valley Arts Podcast

This week, Elise interviews featured artist, Rei Ukon (@reiukon)!

Rei Ukon is a queer and trans Japanese collage artist with a fascination for the hidden, spiritual world. Their art reflects a journey of understanding the relationships that make up our lives and towards inner peace. Specifically, collage has been a healing medium. The act of taking an existing material to create from imagination mirrors the experience of holding their queerness together in forging identity. Each tear in a piece of paper represents a process of letting go and embracing imperfections while awaiting the unique surprises each tear can offer. Through workshops and classes, they aim to cultivate safe spaces for creation. Currently, they are a Teaching Artist at the Banana Factory, Lehigh University Art Galleries, and The Art Establishment.

You can find more about Rei by following them on Instagram at @reiukon or by checking out their website at https://reiukon.wixsite.com/myart.

Our opportunity of the week is for Exposé, an exhibition which features art which relates to exposure, confessions, secrets, coming out, unmasking, opening. This exhibition is an online and digital show that will be online and projected on the walls of Hemlock Art Space & Gallery in Easton, PA. Pieces will be linked to the artist for sales and Hemlock will not collect commission.

The online show will run November 13, 2021 - January 3, 2022 and the projected images will be on view Fridays during the same time period.