Kozo Kontinued

Opening Reception Friday, January 24, 2020 / 6-9pm

on view January 24 – February 29, 2020

The Western New York Book Arts Center presents an exhibition by WNY artists entitled Kozo Kontinued, on view January 24 – February 29, 2020. An opening reception to celebrate the exhibition will be held Friday, January 24 from 6-9pm at 468 Washington St. in downtown Buffalo. This event is free and open to the public.

Kozo Kontinued is an exhibit by a group of WNY artists and Book Arts members who have spent over 3 years experimenting with the Thai mulberry fiber known as Kozo. Building on their group exhibition in spring of 2018, the group again met regularly to process the fiber from its raw state into the various works on exhibit.

From fiber artists to printmakers, book binders to photographers, this exhibit showcases the versatility of the Thai Kozo fiber, and the boundless imagination of the artists.

It started over three years and three shows ago with mentioning that with Kozo, Broussonetia Papyrifera, the inner park of the paper Mulberry, you not only have the basis for the most common form of Eastern papers, but that many other capabilities can spring from it. Our Kozo Group sessions; cooking, cleaning, beating and sheet forming with the fiber have borne this out. The composition of this informal group has grown and changed. Answering the call for our papermaking sessions has as well. Book artists, printmakers, weavers, photographers, sculptors, and others have all come together as interested papermakers. We have then each taken away the fruits of our efforts and responded in our own studios with the works in this, our fourth group exhibition.

Peter Sowiski, Book Arts Board President