University of Alberta Museums Search

Noboru Sawai is known for combining themes, images, and techniques from Eastern and Western art into his varied and often challenging prints. Sawai is of Japanese descent but lives and works in Canada where he was raised. His work is often erotic and his prints vary from incredible detail to loose outlines. Sawai is an inventive artist working from the Sosaku Hanga school who aspires to reconcile the tendencies of the east and the west. This goal has existed since the Meiji Era but instead of trying to hold onto the past or Japanese tradition Sawai tries to reinvent it and combine it with Western themes which force the viewer to question tradition, culture, imagery, and religion.