Urushi Sculpture Artist, Japan
Expressing the existence of precious pitiful human beings
The figures in my work often take a somewhat sad or melancholic pose; they hang their heads, throw themselves down, sit firmly planted upon the ground, or stand for ever motionless. These works comprise a life-size human body merging with an abstract rounded jet-black mass to portray a human figure suffering from anxiety, fear, or apprehension withdrawing into their shell; each figure isolates themselves from the external world and just quietly exists in silence.
Each one is coated by a lustrous jet-black membrane; the effect is achieved by repeatedly layering thin coats, each measuring less than a few tenths of a millimeter. More than 30 production process slowly give solidity and build a strong surface with a mirror-like luster. This steady progress resembles the creating of a shelter to protect us from the external world; it is as if the hard and beautiful lacquered surface transformed the vulnerable and unattractive human into a powerful and beautiful being.
By using urushi lacquer, strong and striking material, I want to express the "existence of precious pitiful human beings" who live so powerfully and vigorously while bearing their burden of anxiety and solitude.
Education
2005 B.F.A., Kanazawa College of Art, Kanazawa, Japan.
2007 M.F.A., Kanazawa College of Art, Kanazawa, Japan.
2010 Ph.D., Kanazawa College of Art, Kanazawa, Japan.
Awards
2005 The Japan Lacquer Crafts Association Award
2019 Merit Award,
2019 KOGEI World Competition in Kanazawa
Exhibitions
Solo
2006 Gallery TE, Tokyo
2007 Gallery TE, Tokyo
2009 Gallery Art Concept, Kanazawa, Japan
2010 Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan
2011 Urushi Body, INAX Gallery 2, Tokyo
2017 Shikkoku no Shintai,
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, Japan
2018 A Body in Solitude, Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
Group
2006 Tama Vivant: Now Rhythm Is Overlapping,
Tama Art University, Tokyo
Minatomirai Station, Yokohama, Japan
45th Hokuriku Chunichi Art Exhibition,
21st Century Museum of Contemporary
Art, Kanazawa, Japan.
2008 Tama Vivant II: Seed of Images,
Tama Art University, Tokyo
Minatomirai Station, Yokohama, Japan
Kanazawa Art Platform 2008:
To Create Our Own Place by Ourselves,
Tsubakihara Tenmangu Shrine,
Kanazawa, Japan
2009 Emerging Directors’ Art Fair Ultra 002,
SPIRAL, Tokyo
2010 Curving Out the Future of Lacquer:
Age of the New 2010,
Ishikawa Wajima Urushi Art Museum,
Wajima, Ishikawa, Japan.
1st International Triennale of Kogei
in Kanazawa “Network Crafting”,
Rifare, Kanazawa, Japan
Aizu Urushi Art Festival,
Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan.
Lacquer: Searching for New Expressions,
Kitakata City Museum of Art,
Fukushima, Japan
2011 Aizu Urushi Art Festival,
Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima, Japan
2012 Resonant Uruwashi: New Vibrance in
International Woman’s Urushi Art,
Yamawaki Gallery, Tokyo
Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto
Kitakata City Museum of Art, Fukushima, Japan
2013 World of Great Lacquer: Origin and Flows,
2nd Hubei International Triennial of Lacquer Art,
Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China
2014 Shizubi Project 4: The Human Form and Sculpture,
Tsuda Akiko, Fujiwara Ayato, Aoki Chie,
Shizuoka City Museum of Art,
Shizuoka, Japan
2015 Fruitfulness: Contemporary Art in Toyokawa,
Toyokawa City Sakuragaoka Museum,
Toyokawa, Aichi, Japan
Four Spirited Artists,
Shinoda Toko Art Space, Seki, Gifu, Japan
The Future of Lacquer:
The People Who Are Following Setsuro Takahashi,
Takahashi Setsuro Art Museum,
Azumino, Nagano, Japan.
Contemporary Arts Exhibition,
Minna no Mori Gifu Media Cosmos, Gifu, Japan.
Gifu DNA,
The Museum of Fine Arts Gifu, Gifu, Japan.
2016 HATCHi to Art Tourism,
The share hotels, Kanazawa, Japan
World of Lacquer: Cycle of Time,
3rd Hubei International Triennial of Lacquer Art,
Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China
Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, Japan
Spider’s Thread,
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota,
Aichi, Japan.
2017 Hard Bodies:
Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Sculpture,
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
The Ishikawa International Urushi Exhibition 2017,
Shiinoki Cultural Complex, Kanazawa, Japan
Shapes and Figures, SPIRAL, Tokyo
Wacoal Study Hal, Kyoto, Japan
2018 Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, Japan.
Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store, Tokyo
Nihonbashi Takashimaya, Tokyo
Water and Land Niigata Art Festival 2018,
The Niigata Saitou Villa, Niigata, Japan
Thick chat,
Kanazawa Citizen's Art Center, Kanazawa
MATERIAL×ART,
Traditional Art & Craft of Ishikawa
2019 Exposure of the method,
Shiinoki Cultural Complex, Kanazawa, Japan
Development of modern crafts 2019,
Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, Kanazawa, Japan
4th Triennale of KOGEI in Kanazawa,
21st Century Museum of Contemporary art ,
Kanazawa, Japan
ART021 Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair 2019,
Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai, China
Design Miami 2019,
Miami Beachi Convention Center,
Miami, USA.
2020 Assemble ~ Accumulating technique and body ~,
The Musuem of Arts & Crafts ITAMI, Japan.
2D & 3D collaboration exhibition, Takashimaya.
Expressing Lacquer,
Kanazawa Nakamura Memorial Museum.
2021 GO FOR KOGEI 2021,
Special Exhibition I - Shokoji Temple, Japan.
FEMINISMS,
21st Centru Museum of Contemporary Art. Kanazawa.
2022 Arts Towada 10th Anniversary Exhibition:
Inter+Play Season 1,
Towada Art Center.
Metal and Urushi of Crafts, Toyama, Japan.
Collection Exhibition 1 Vessels,
21st Centru Museum of Contemporary Art. Kanazawa.
Genreless Kogei,
National Crafts Museum.
illusionary microcosm －Phosphorescence of four contemporary lacquer artists－
SEIKO HOUSE GINZA WAKO HALL.
Roppongi Crossing 2022: Coming & Going,
MORI ART MUSEUM.
Collections
Kanazawa College of Art, Ishikawa, Japan
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, U.S.A.
Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China
Tokushima Modern Art Museum, Tokushima, Japan
Morikami Museum, FL, USA.
Yishun Art Space (Shenyang, China)
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art.
21 Century Museum of Contemporary Art. Kanazawa
National Crafts Museum