May 31 - Sept 21, 2025
Timed Tickets: $27-$32 | Anytime Tickets: $40
Never sen before in the U.S., the exhibition will feature a collection of 50 original works of art and 13 artifacts.
More than a wave, this exhibition promises to be more than your typical museum exhibition with engaging experiences that will immerse guests in Edo Period culture through several interactive areas, including a multi-media historical display, peaceful Japanese garden, anime exhibit, children’s area and interactive Edo experiences including period garments such as Shogun and Kabuki fashion replicas, and more.
The “Hokusai and Ukiyo-e: The Floating World” exhibition showcases over 60 works and artifacts by the masters of Japan’s Edo Period (1603-1868). Works by acclaimed artists such as Hokusai and Hiroshige are a window into the life during this time when the city of Edo (present-day Tokyo) thrived as the center of Japan’s economy and culture. The collection includes original painted works, intricate color woodblock prints and instruments and other beautifully lacquered objects and more.
The Exhibition is organized by the Cleve Carney Museum of Art in collaboration with the Museo d’Arte Orientale E. Chiossone of Genoa and with the support of MondoMostre.
Featured artwork includes ten works by Hokusai, including “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” from the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji,” and 17 works by Hiroshige, known for his traditional woodblock prints, along with works by 15 of their contemporaries. The collection includes hand-painted hanging scrolls in paper and silk as well as elegant and detailed multi-colored woodblock prints as beautiful as brocade as their name nishiki-e indicates. The selection is enriched by the presentation of original and refined art and craft objects in dialogue with the paintings and prints that often are representing them and their common use.
The opulent works are quintessential representations of the Japanese art form known as “Ukiyo-e,” or “floating world images,” in which artists depict an idealized world of grandeur, class, wit, style, and pleasure, created during a period when Japan was limiting international relationships to one port that is Nagasaki, offering a unique point of view. The scrolls, prints and fans created during this time brought international notoriety to Japan giving birth to the Japanism trend. When Japan did open its borders, these pieces fascinated and influenced the world’s artists including impressionists such as Monet and Degas and later Van Gogh.