Hiroki Morinoue studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts, where he received his BFA degree. Morinoue spent time in Japan studying with a Master woodblock printer. The skills he acquired in this intense pursuit are evident in the direct, elegant, and fluid woodcuts and monotypes Morinoue has made at Shark’s.
In all of Morinoue’s work there is a compelling sense of place–the ocean shoreline, lava flows and Japanese gardens. He is a patient observer of nature, its rhythms, cycles and patterns, and these observations become poetic images in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, ceramics and prints.
Morinoue’s latest prints are two woodblock diptychs titled Low Tide and High Tide.
In Low Tide the left panel captures the play of light on water with abstracted colorful reflections. The right panel depicts a tree rising through ripples on the water’s surface.
In High Tide the left panel captures the reflections of the edge of a pond and surrounding trees and hills. The right panel depicts fish circling beneath a tree that is submerged below the water’s reflections and ripples.
Hiroki Morinoue has shown widely in the United States and Japan. He has completed several major public art commissions, including projects at the Honolulu Public Library, and the Hawaii Convention Center. Morinoue’s work is represented in the collections of The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu; The Honolulu Academy of Arts, The National Parks Collection, Maryland; Ueno No Mori Museum, Tokyo, and others.
