In Pursuit of Pleasure: Lucy May Schofield & Japanese Woodblock Prints

‘In Pursuit of Pleasure’ refers to the golden age of Japanese woodblock printing in the 18th and 19th centuries, Ukiyo-e, or ‘pictures of the floating world’. This is an expression of the fleeting, ephemeral pleasures of life: the theatre, beautiful women, or courtesans, folklore stories and the beauty of animals, flowers, and plants.

The exhibition prompts a conversation between contemporary British artist Lucy May Schofield’s stunning prints, inspired by the experience of living and working in rural Northumbria and made using contemporary and traditional Japanese woodblock techniques, and Gallagher & Turner’s Japanese woodblock collection, featuring printmakers of the Edo, Meiji and Shin-Hanga eras of Japanese art.