A: Is for the art of soul

When one looks at the paintings of Hiroko Ohno's it as if you are being transported into a different universe...a parallel one. She paints out of her studio in New York and shows out of her gallery on 9 Desbrosses street #514. To see them in person call 212 343-3022. Ohno is a highly original artist and she combines a Japanese decorative style with certain western flare. Highly original, there are multiple viewpoints as she creates uniquely lyrical landscapes that express a deep empathy for plants, animals and humans alike and a desire for cosmic unity. Bold color alternating with soft, near monochrome tones vivifies the senses and inspires the soul.

Trained at the prestigious Musashino Art School in Tokyo, the city of her birth, Hiroko branched out to create a new synthesis of styles to express a personal point of view. Traveling extensively in the United States, Thailand, Africa, Australia and Mongolia. She absorbed the vibrations of the landscape and incorporated them into her work. Some of her works are executed on site, based on perception, while many others are abstractions of her memories painted in the studio. In Mongolia's Gobi Desert upon seeing the setting sun in the west while the moon was rising in the east. She had an epiphany. She saw herself as suspended between the two, released somehow from the gravitational pull of the earth and free to float in the universe. She began to embrace an ancient philosophy regarding human beings as a species among many, thus according respect to all living creatures as a manifestation of the divine.

Galaxy II, which is a vertical painting sets dark blue against bursts of white, like stars exploding into sudden sight. Unwittingly there is an immediate reference to "Starry Night". The delicacy of the nineteenth century painter Whistler and his famous Nocturnes lives again within Ohno's galaxy. They say things are a cycle and these two minds prove that its a F.A.C.T.