Oscar Lloveras

1999 Kamiyama Artist in Residence Participant
In Kamiyama from October 5 to November 17 1999

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1960. When he was 14, began to study art at the Argentina National Art School. He continued to study carving art at Sorbonne University in Paris. In graduate school, he studied relition. Since then he has been having a deep interest in Asian art, religion, and history. On his first visit to Japan, he learned Japanese painting and Japanese. On the second visit, he stayed at Shogakuin Rikyu in Kyoto for two months and studied Shinto, Buddhism, and Shodo. Using plants, tinted leaves, wood, metal, and glass, he creates highly individual pieces of art. He has been challenged to create new art by basing his work on art, religion, and philosophy. In recent years, he has been interested in using paper as a new material, along with twigs, strings, and leaves.

This basic motif comes from Kamiyama's colors and landscape. Its theme is five elements in Mikkyo, which is one sect of Buddhism; land, water, fire, wind, and sky. This is because Kamiyama was established by the merging of five villages. Hemp palm ropes were interwoven to make triangle shapes. Washi, Japanese traditional paper, from the Awa Washi Traditional Industrial Center was pasted, then painted with colors which express Kamiyama's water and the sky. This huge work, its length is seven meters and its width is twelve meters, will be seen as a part of nature in Kamiyama when it is exhibited there.