Rick Yoshimoto & JB Blunk

Best Western is pleased to announce Rick Yoshimoto & JB Blunk, a two-person exhibition of works that celebrates the long creative exchange between the two artists. This exhibition is composed of works across media that include bronze, ceramics and wood. From Yoshimoto, a set of double-sided, painterly ceramic plates as well as three new wooden sculptures, two stools and a table, that all demonstrate the artist’s interest in intuitively finding forms in the material through process while pulling the object away from expectations of function.  A selection of historical works from the Estate of JB Blunk spanning  decades will be in conversation with the works of Yoshimoto. Works in this show from Blunk: a small ceramic drinking cup with gold embellishments, a bronze candlestick that leans to the surreal, a free-standing redwood tray and an acrylic painting on wood that calls to mind the Point Reyes peninsula. Over the years, spending countless hours in Blunk’s home and studio, Yoshimoto became intimately familiar with these objects.

The relationship between Yoshimoto and Blunk began in Inverness, CA in 1977 when Yoshimoto was en route to Canada. What started as a casual meeting evolved into a decades long collaboration and friendship. Their working relationship took shape through numerous large-scale public commissions such as Greens Restaurant, San Francisco, CA, and Menlo Park Caltrans Station, Menlo Park, CA. Contrasting their epic public commissions, Yoshimoto and Blunk would mount community-centered ceramic shows over decades, with their final ceramics exhibition in the early 90’s at Dance Palace Community Center in Point Reyes, CA. Rick Yoshimoto & JB Blunk marks the first time that the artists’ work will be shown together since the Dance Palace, as well as the first time Blunk’s work will be presented in New Mexico. This will be Yoshimoto’s first two-person exhibition in Santa Fe, NM since relocating to Lamy, NM in 2015.