山路を登りながら TEFAF Maastricht 2019 16th March – 24th March 2019 Early Access Day (Invite only) 14th March Preview Day (Invite only) 15th March Stand 237 The Yufuku Collection 2019
Sueharu Fukami Masaru Nakada 06 58 Our Raison D'etre
10 Satoru Ozaki 62 Sachi Fujikake
In recent years, the emergence of a group of Japanese artists who have spearheaded a new way of thinking Masaaki Yonemoto Kosuke Kato 14 66 in the realm of contemporary art has helped to shift paradigms and vanquish stereotypes borne from the 19th century, their art and aesthetics understood as making vital contributions to the broader history of modern and contemporary art. This new current, linked by the phrase Keisho-ha (School of Form), Keizo Sugitani Ayane Mikagi 18 70 encompasses a movement of artists who, through the conscious selection of material and technique, create boldly innovative sculptures and paintings that cannot be manifested by other means. The term craft does not encapsulate or faithfully capture this movement, nor do the traditional dichotomies that have long Kentaro Sato Hidenori Tsumori 22 74 separated fine art from craft art. To borrow the words of Nietzsche, "Craft is dead." A new age beckons.
No country exemplifies this expanding role more so than the artists of contemporary Japan, a country that Ken Mihara Naoki Takeyama 26 78 continues to place premium on elegance in execution coupled with cutting-edge innovation within tradition. No gallery represents this new movement more so than Yufuku, a gallery that has nurtured and represented the Keisho School from its conceptual inception. 30 Akihiro Maeta 82 Yoshiro Kimura Michelangelo once said, "every block of stone has a statue inside, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." Our artists are no different, wielding material and technique to create a unique aesthetic that 34 Niyoko Ikuta 86 Yasutaka Baba can inspire future generations, yet would resonate with generations before us, regardless of age, creed or culture. The Keisho School is not, then, a passing trend within contemporary art. It is, moreover, a much-anticipated Return to Innocence. 38 Eiko Kishi 90 Takahiro Yede
Yufuku's aesthetic is a reminder of what has been lost in today's art world, and is testament to what the 42 Ruiko Imai 94 Masanori Maeda future holds in store: the importance of integrity within execution, craftsmanship, material and artistry, long lost yet not forgotten within the overdrawn conceptualism of contemporary art, thereby placing precedence upon art that will withstand the tests of time, emerging from the shadows like the morning sun. 46 Kanjiro Moriyama 98 Kazumi Nagano
Wahei Aoyama 50 Takafumi Asakura 102 Joseph Walsh Owner Yufuku Gallery
54 Osamu Yokoyama
2 3 “Less is more.” Mies an der Rohe
4 SUEHARU FUKAMI 深見陶治 “To create a sense of noble simplicity and great silence, I search for a world of fundamental depth.” Infinity in Pale Blue
Kyu (Sky) by Sueharu Fukami (2019) Slip-cast porcelain, celadon glaze, walnut base H19.5 × W74 × D20 cm SUEHARU FUKAMI
About the Artist 1947 Born in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan / Lives and works in Kyoto Selected Awards One of the most distinguished Japanese ceramists of his generation, Kyoto’s Sueharu 1985 Grand Prize, the Faenza International Ceramic Exhibition Fukami (1947- ) wishes to express the ‘infinite space’ that lies beyond the supple curves 1992 Grand Prize, MOA Mokichi Okada Award and sharp silhouettes of his abstract porcelain sculptures, lusciously drenched in the 1997 The Kyoto Prefecture Culture Prize, Prize for Artistic Merit delicate translucency of the artist’s signature pale-blue seihakuji glaze. The triumphant 2011 Gold Prize, Japan Ceramic Society edges and arches borne from Fukami’s minimal forms represent what cannot be tangibly seen: the circularity of life and the continuity of space itself. With works in over 50 Selected Exhibitions th public collections, in particular the British Museum and Victoria & Albert Museum in 1986 44 International Competition of Ceramic Art, Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, Germany London, the Metropolitan Museum in New York City, the Museum of Fine Arts in 1987 Galerie Maghi Bettini, Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Galerie Maya Behn, Zürich, Switzerland Boston, the Musée national de Céramique-Sèvres and many others, Fukami has Musée des Arts Decoratifs de la Ville de Lausanne, Switzerland contributed to defining and expanding the meaning, importance, and popularity of 1993 Modern Japanese Ceramics in American Collections, Japan Society, New York / New Orleans Museum of Art Honolulu Academy of Art, USA contemporary Japanese ceramics to collectors and museums the world over. 1995 Japanese Studio Craft: Tradition and Avant-garde, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK 2002 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, USA 2003 Japan- Ceramics and Photography: Tradition and Today, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg, Germany The Ruth and Sherman Lee Institute for Japanese Art at The Clark Center, Hanford, USA 2005 Faenza International Ceramics Museum, Italy 2006 Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century, Japan Society Gallery, New York, USA Tôji: Avant-Garde et Tradition de la Cèramique Japonaise, Musèe national de cèramique Sèvres, France 2008 The Dauer Collection, California State University, University Library Gallery, USA About the Work 2011 Purity of Form, The Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, Hanford, USA 2012 Vallauris Ceramics Biennale, France / Collect, London, UK (’13, ’14, ’15) The artist is known for his genre-defining high-pressure slip-casting techniques. Fukami’s 2013 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’14, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) works are first realised by creating a 3-tiered plaster mould of considerable size and 2014 Fukami Sueharu Porcelain Sculptures, Eric Thomsen Japanese Art, New York, USA weight. Porcelain slip is poured into this mould using a pressurised air compressor to Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’15, ’16, ’17) / Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) ensure that the porcelain clay is proportionately condensed without air pockets or 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco / Art Taipei, Taiwan impurities. Once the mould is removed, the work is dried completely. Fukami then uses 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA an ultra-sharp Tungaloy alloy blade and sandpaper to sharpen and hone the form into 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA the work he envisions. After bisque-firing in an electric kiln, the work is sprayed with seihakuji (celadon) glaze, and then reduction-fired in an electric kiln for approximately 30 Selected Public Collections hours. The completed sculpture is then attached to a base made from wood. His latest Victoria and Albert Museum, UK / Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA / Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA / creation for TEFAF, entitled Kyu (Sky), is a soaring ode to sleek abstraction that cuts Argentina Museum of Modern Art, Japanese House, Argentina / Musée Ariana, Switzerland / Musée d’Art et through time and space. Creating less than 10 pieces a year, the art of Fukami continues d’Histoire, Switzerland / British Museum, UK / Brooklyn Museum of Art, USA / Everson Museum, USA / Faenza to inspire and fascinate the discerning eyes of critics and collectors alike. International Ceramics Museum, Italy / French Culture Foundation, France / Hetjens Museum, Germany / International Permanent Collection of Modern Art, Yugoslavia /Musée des Arts Décoratifs de la Ville de Lausanne, Switzerland / Musée National de Céramique, France / Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, USA / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA / Newcastle Museum, Australia / New Orleans Museum of Art, USA / North Carolina Museum of Art, USA / Portland Art Museum, USA / Saint Louis Art Museum, USA / Spencer Museum of Art, USA / The Art Institute of Chicago, USA / The National Museum of History, Taiwan / The Yale University Art Gallery, USA / Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan / Chazen Museum of Art, USA / Kameoka City, Japan / Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan / Kyoto Prefectural Library and Archives, Japan / Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Japan / Suntory Museum, Japan / The Japan Foundation, Japan / The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan / The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan / The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan / The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan / Tokoname City Education Bureau, Japan / Tsurui Museum of Art, Japan / Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA / Auckland Museum, New Zealand / National Gallery of Australia, Australia / Ackland Art Museum, USA / The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA / Harvard Art Museum, USA / Museum of Contemporary Art, Belgrade, Serbia / The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan / MOA Museum of Art, Japan / Rakusuitei Museum of Art, Japan
8 9 SATORU OZAKI 尾崎悟
Moments Entwined in Metal
"To create a work more natural than nature itself. Within it, a world of harmony, purity and the serene."
The Watershed by Satoru Ozaki (2018) Hammered, polished stainless steel H153 × W235 × D29 cm 10 SATORU OZAKI
About the Artist
An ascetic recluse living in the foothills of Chiba who refused to hold exhibitions of his work for nearly 10 years before his representation by Yufuku Gallery in 2014, metal artist Satoru Ozaki (1963- ) is considered one of the 'lost treasures' of Japan in light of his mind-bending techniques of hammering and polishing the immobile and adamantine material of stainless steel into beautiful, minimal forms of great depth and presence. Once heralded as the saviour of conceptual metalwork during his time at the prestigious Tokyo University of the Arts, the sands of time had slowly buried the artist underneath the limelight. Yet finding a muse in the new aesthetic movement of the Keisho-ha (School of Form), Ozaki has sprung forth from his hermit-like existence to create never-before-seen sculptures in shimmering steel that are now captivating audiences the world over. Ozaki’s works can be currently found in the museums of the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and the Metal Arts Museum in Sakura, Chiba Prefecture.
About the Work
Transforming metal into something fluid, while bending the properties of time, space and light through mirror-like qualities using the traditional techniques of hand-hammering and polishing metal, Ozaki’s latest work is entitled The Watershed, and is the artist’s largest wall-hanging piece ever made. Hand-hammered and welded together from more than 60 blocks of steel, and then hand-polished meticulously to create a mirror-like finish that warps reality and the reflections upon it, Ozaki’s sculpture is at once Space Odyssey futurism entwined with a sheer beauty that bends time and space, taking the viewer into unforeseen realms.
A watershed in geological terms is the ridge that determines where the falling rain would eventually pool, accumulate and flow into larger rivers, and it is this mountainous divide which dictates the direction of flowing water. Likewise, the rain that falls must someday flow into the ocean and part ways, just as human relationships must one day depart and travel to new vistas and horizons. Made as an ode to a friend who must travel on a new path in life, it is not made with sadness, however, but with the hope of meeting again, purified and rejuvenated, ultimately growing more beautiful because of this divide and separation. Saying goodbye brings the next opportunity to say hello. For Ozaki, it is simply another way to say that one day, we shall meet again.
1963 Born in Tokyo, Japan 1993 Tokyo University of the Arts / Lives and works in Chiba Selected Exhibitions 1986 Okurayama Museum, Yokohama, Japan 1993 Tokyo University of the Arts, Master of Fine Arts Graduation Exhibition, Japan Yokohama Galleria Bellini Hill Gallery, Nomura Cultural Foundation, Japan 1996 Metal Art Museum, Chiba, Japan 2002 Toki Gallery, Chiba, Japan 2006 Garret Interior, Japan (’07) 2014 Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) 2015 Keisho-ha II: A New Materialism, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’16, ’17) Collect, London, UK 2016 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’17, ’18, ’19) Spring Masters New York, USA EAF Monaco, Monaco Art Taipei, Taiwan 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA 2018 The Story Tellers of Metal, Lixil Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Seattle Art Fair, USA
Public Collections Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan Metal Art Museum, Chiba, Japan
Alternate view
12 13 MASAAKI YONEMOTO 米元優曜
Luminescence in Glass
“Beyond the edges and silhouettes of my abstract glass lay infinite space, the vicissitudes of life, and a spiritual world of purity.”
Skyscraper by Masaaki Yonemoto (2019) Laminated sheet glass 14 H95 × W19 × D17 cm MASAAKI YONEMOTO
About the Artist About the Work
If the metropolises of the next millennium are futuristic Appearances can be deceiving. At first glance, Yonemoto’s glass sculptures pyramids in glass, Masaaki Yonemoto’s (1987- ) skyscrapers look as if they are made from a solid block of carved glass. This is far would reign bright in the night sky, glistening softly in their from truth. In fact, his glass prisms are made of up to 15 separate layers incandescent splendour. Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture and of gigantic sheet glass of the highest clarity that are attached one by one recently moving back to his birthplace to build his own through a special ‘photobond’ adhesive that disappears and hardens under independent studio, Yonemoto is a young artist, yet his ultraviolet light. Taking several days to attach each sheet of glass together talent is undisputed. Graduating head of his class at the without creating air bubbles or leaving impurities in-between the glass, Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts in 2010, and and leaving in the centre a magic mirror coating that adds a further further completing his graduate studies at the Toyama City reflective quality to his iridescent sculptures, Yonemoto then takesa Institute of Glass Art, Yonemoto has received more than diamond-head grinder to cut through the edges of the glass, carving only 10 major awards in glass in the three years since leaving a millimetre at a time to find the ideal curving silhouettes in his mind’s university, and embodies the great aesthetic potential of eye. This process takes up to two weeks to perform until he can sculpt the glass as a major sculptural material. Ultimately, the artist glass into a riveting form ‘shorn of excess.’ Next, the artist takes nearly strives to achieve a lyrical ‘architectural minimalism in two weeks to polish the entirety of his glass facades with cerium oxide, glass’ that combines the beauty of a basic outer facade ensuring that the work shines without damaging or causing cracks to his coupled with the beauty of a revealed interior that is at distinctive edges. Free-standing and balanced without any need of a base, once complex and striking. Yonemoto’s seductive glass sculptures point to the future of glass as a compelling medium in contemporary art.
1987 Born in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan 2010 Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts 2012 Toyama City Institute of Glass Art 2017 Moves studio from Toyama to Yamaguchi / Lives and works in Yamaguchi Selected Awards 2010 Dean’s Award, Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts 2011 Award of Excellence, Tokyo Midtown Award Special Award (Second Prize), 4th Contemporary Glass Triennial in Toyama Head of Board Award, Toyama Chamber of Commerce / Ecchu Art Grand Prize, Ecchu Art Festival President Award, The Kitanippon Shimbun Exhibition 2012 Created the Winners’ Trophy for Tokyo Midtown Award Design & Art Competition Award of Excellence (Second Prize), 5th Contemporary Glass Exhibition in Sanyo Onoda Award of Excellence, Ecchu Art Festival / Toyama Prefectural Artistic and Cultural Association Award 2013 Selected, Cheongju International Craft Biennale / Gold Prize, 7th Snow Design Competition 2014 Grand Prize, Art Fair Toyama Art Award (’16) 2015 Izak Prize, Art Fair Toyama Art Award 2016 Special Hokusan Prize, Art Fair Toyama Art Award Selected Exhibitions 2009 4th Contemporary Glass Exhibition in Sanyo Onoda, Yamaguchi, Japan Takaoka Crafts Competition, Daiwa Takaoka, Japan 2010 3rd Glass Education Network (GEN) Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan 2011 Tokyo Midtown Award, Tokyo Midtown, Japan (’12) / 4th Contemporary Glass Triennial in Toyama, Japan 50th Japan Craft Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan 2012 Roppongi Art Night, Tokyo Midtown, Japan 5th Contemporary Glass Exhibition in Sanyo Onoda, Yamaguchi, Japan 11th Oita Asian Sculpture Exhibition, Japan Décor of Summer, Rakusui-tei Museum of Art Exhibition, Toyama, Japan Toyama City New Glasswork Acquisition Exhibition, Japan 2013 Collect, London, UK (’14, ’15) / SOFA Chicago, USA (’14, ’15) Cheongju International Craft Biennale, South Korea 2014 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’15, ’16, ’17) / Asia Week New York, USA TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) Clark Art Institute Opening Exhibition, Massachusetts, USA The Beauty of Materials - Group Exhibition, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco / Art Taipei, Taiwan 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA
Public Collections Toyama Glass Art Museum, Japan / Tokyo Midtown, Japan / Nakaya Ukichiro Museum of Snow and Ice, Japan
16 Alternate view 17 KEIZO SUGITANI 杉谷恵造
In Clay, a Primal Grandeur
"To capture a man and a woman, in love, together, in raw, primitive harmony, where shadows combine as one."
Shadows Crossing by Keizo Sugitani (2019) Stoneware with glaze 18 H75.5 × W41.5 × D16.5 cm KEIZO SUGITANI
About the Artist
Keizo Sugitani (1959- ) of Osaka is virtually unknown in Japan, yet underneath the radar of empty populism, he has come to develop an aesthetic that would blindside spectators with a visceral beauty brimming with the sheer urgency of now. Sugitani's works are minimal odes that call to mind the abstractions of the Basque artist Eduardo Chillida and the natural beauty of Barbara Hepworth, with grayish-black glaze and rustic hues, hand-built and elegantly primitive in their innocent grandeur. Entitled Shadows Crossing, there is a rawness to Sugitani's latest works that limn the Primitivism of the Nabi and the austere simplicity of Brutalist architecture. By capturing within his abstract silhouettes the interlocking, rugged yet eternal relationships between man and woman, the serene shadows borne within reveal multitudes of complex, raw emotion.
About the Work
Although imbued with the rustic sheen of metal, Sugitani’s works are in fact creations in Shigaraki clay that are hand-built into interlocking forms that are almost Escher-esque in their simple complexity. The artist, after blending a base white clay, begins the rigorous process of hand-coiling his sculptures into the forms in his mind’s eye. After carving and smoothening the surfaces, the artist bisque-fires the work, and then applies an original glaze filled with copper that, after a main firing in his gas-kiln, gives his works a distinctive patina similar to rusted metal. Appearances can be deceiving, and the sheer formative simplicity of the artist’s sculptures masks the difficulty of firing such towering totems in clay, and hide, perhaps in the shadows, the modern mastery of Keizo Sugitani.
1959 Born in Osaka Prefecture, Japan 1982 Ceramic Art Institute of Tekisui Museum of Art Lives and works in Osaka
Selected Awards 1996 Prize, All Kansai Art Exhibition (’97) 1998 Selected, Asahi Ceramic Exhibition (’99) 2017 Selected, The 11th International Ceramics Competition Mino, Japan
Selected Exhibitions 2014 The Promise – Keizo Sugitani Solo exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Collect, London, UK (’15) 2015 Art Miami, USA (’16, ’17, ’18) 2016 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’17) TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’17, ’18, ’19) Shadows Crossing – Keizo Sugitani Solo exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Spring Masters New York, USA EAF Monaco, Monaco Art Taipei, Taiwan 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA 2018 Shadows Crossing II – Keizo Sugitani, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Seattle Art Fair, USA
20 Alternate view 21 KENTARO SATO 佐藤健太郎
Nihonga’s Abstract Expressionism
“To be one with nature… Such is the starting point of my paintings. Yet perhaps this is but the act of living life itself.”
View of the Water by Kentaro Sato (2019) Japanese pigments on Japanese paper, mounted on 2 individual panels 22 H182 × W182 cm KENTARO SATO
About the Artist 1990 Born in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan 2015 Tama Art University Graduate School With evocative paintings that call to mind the luscious colours of Rothko, yet at the Lives and works on Shikine Island, Tokyo same time imbuing them with the intellectually dark timbre of Richter, the abstract canvases of the young Kentaro Sato (1990- ) awaken emphatic memories of nature and Selected Solo Exhibitions the inner spirit. The genre of Nihonga (Japanese painting using natural pigments and 2015 Kentaro Sato Solo Exhibition, Gallery Q, Tokyo minerals) in which he works in is an oft-archaic medium that has been unable to move 2016 Kentaro Sato Solo Exhibition, Art Space 88, Tokyo on from the giants of the 20th century, with the majority of artists stuck in the quagmires of a staid conservatism dating back from the Bubble Economy of the 80’s, or Recent Exhibitions simply creating works with subject matter and compositions of a plastic realism that are difficult to distinguish from Western oil painting. 2013 Group Exhibition, Ginza Mitsukoshi Department Store, Tokyo, Japan Group Exhibition, Gallery Q, Tokyo, Japan (’14, ’15) It is within this context that one can see an emergence of a new generation of Nihonga 2014 Group Exhibition, Itochu Aoyama Art square, Tokyo, Japan (’15, ’16) artists who have pushed the genre in a new direction, garnering prominence and 2015 Group Exhibition, Isetan Shinjuku Department Store, Tokyo, Japan (’16) recognition within the eyes of Western collections by focusing on paintings that are filled Kentaro Sato Solo Exhibition, Gallery Q, Tokyo, Japan with intriguing subject matter never before featured in Nihonga, while using techniques Group Exhibition, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan and motifs that brim with progressive innovation. Sato is one such youthful artist who is Group Exhibition, Jinen Gallery, Tokyo, Japan helping to propel Nihonga into vistas previously unseen, creating works that are painted Group Exhibition, GALLERY ARTPOINT, Tokyo, Japan using the oft-forgotten technique of tarashikomi, or pouring ink in layers over a canvas 2016 Group Exhibition, FEI ART MUSEUM YOKOHAMA, Japan or screen. The resulting paintings are inner landscapes that call to mind the traditions of Kentaro Sato Solo Exhibition, Art Space 88, Tokyo, Japan Western abstract expressionism, yet with a uniquely Japanese aesthetic. 2017 Art Miami, USA 2018 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’19) Seattle Art Fair, USA About the Work
Tarashikomi is a medieval technique commonly understood to have been devised by the legendary Momoyama/early-Edo painter Tawaraya Sotatsu (1570 – 1640), wherein wet ink or paint is applied over a pre-painted colour, thereby creating the intentional effect of blotting, or nijimi. Often used for accentuating certain colours or motifs within figurative compositions, it is rarely, if not ever, used within the entirety of a painting as its immediate subject. In this light, the new Sato work painted for TEFAF Maastricht, entitled ‘View of the Water’, is revolutionary in its use of tarashikomi as its focal point, the composition depicting an abstract interpretation of the night sky. With serenely enigmatic colours that help ignite the imagination and evoke visceral feelings of an innate, sublime world within, Sato’s works are far removed from the refined, figurative and detailed works traditionally associated with Japanese painting. Instead, the artist borrows elements of raw emotion, tension and flux within the context of Japanese painting, whilst imbuing his paintings with a beauty that derives from his materials, in particular the blues derived from Lapis Lazuri and the greens from Verdigris. While controlling the movements of his pigments that flow over his Japanese washi paper, Sato creates an impressive inner world of Nihonga that is irrefutably his own.
24 25 KEN MIHARA 三原研
Serenity in Clay
“The sounds of the soul, I embrace in clay. It is this moment, to capture the flowing of life itself, I hope.”
Kuon (Aetus) by Ken Mihara (2019) Multi-fired stoneware 26 H70.5 × W42 × D20.5 cm KEN MIHARA
About the Artist About the Work
Pristine forests, rugged ravines, gentle rivers and quiet The aesthetic qualities of serenity and the sublime coalesce within Mihara’s work. In mountains. Such are the landscapes that artist Ken essence, these qualities are the scents of Japan, a culture that has traditionally Mihara (1958- ) witnessed as a child, growing up in the searched for beauty within wabi-sabi austerity, spiritual simplicity, and the cherishing majestic scenery of Izumo in Western Japan. With of patina. Without the use of glaze, the natural landscapes found on his hand-built natural surroundings of great beauty, steeped in the facades are borne through multiple, lengthy and difficult kiln-firings, with each firing mysticism of ancient Shinto lore, Mihara’s solemn revealing a new element to a work’s clay flavour that help to ‘unlock the memories stoneware are borne and influenced from deeply idyllic trapped within clay.’ Yet perhaps most remarkable about Mihara is his ability to environs. His works are far more than odes to nature, dramatically change styles over the years without diminishing the ‘essence’ found however. They are, above all, a window into the artist’s within his oeuvre. In fact, Mihara changes the physical appearance of his work every soul, and are monuments of self-expression that three to four years, altogether abandoning popular forms for new vistas. The work capture and convey the Ken Mihara of yesterday, today, featured in this year’s TEFAF catalogue, entitled Kuon (Aetus), is the second year and tomorrow. With consecutively sold-out exhibitions that the artist is working on his latest theme, bringing together both the primitive in Tokyo and NYC since 2008, and with acquisitions by beauty of antiquity into contemporary forms and firings. Yet regardless of a given leading institutions such as the Metropolitan and the period in his career, each and every Mihara work is instantly recognisable as a Mihara. Victoria & Albert Museums, among many others, It is the immediate appeal of his clay flavour, his trademark blues and greys, the way Mihara’s works have captivated a global audience, in his bases are elevated and executed with absolute precision, the seemingly classical, effect propelling the artist to be one of the time-tested presence that brims from his minimal silhouettes, that are unmistakable frontrunners of contemporary Japanese ceramics. for any other artist, and which have not changed throughout the years. Ultimately, Mihara, Izumo and clay cannot be separated. They are one.
1958 Born in Izumo, Shimane Prefecture, Japan / Lives and works in Izumo Selected Awards 1989 Prize, Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition (’91, ’95, ’08) 1992 Prize, Chanoyu-no-Zokei Exhibition (’94, ’02, ’03, ’04, ’10) / Prize, International Ceramic Art Festival, Mino 1993 Governor's Prize, Japan Traditional Arts and Crafts Exhibition, Chugoku Division 1995 Award of Excellence, Chanoyu-no-Zokei Exhibition (’05, ’06) 1997 Prize, Unglazed Ceramic Public Offering Exhibition 2001 Grand Prize, Chanoyu-no Zokei Exhibition (’08) 2006 Award, Paramita Ceramics Competition, Paramita Museum 2008 Japan Ceramic Society Award Selected Exhibitions 1997 Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (’98, ’99, ’00, ’02, ’03, ’05, ’06, ’07, ’09, ’11, ’13, ’15, ’18) 2002 International Asia-Pacific Contemporary Ceramics Invitational Exhibition, Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan 2008 Collect 2008, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK / Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., New York, USA (’11) 2009 Collect, London, UK (’10, ’11, ’12, ’13,’14,’15) 2010 Ken Mihara and Shihoko Fukumoto, Galerie Besson, London, UK 2012 Japan Zu Gast, Galerie Marianne Heller, Heidelberg, Germany 2013 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’14, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) Serenity in Clay, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney, Australia 2014 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’15, ’16, ’17) Tales Entwined as One - Shigekazu Nagae and Ken Mihara Exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Clark Art Institute Opening Exhibition, USA / Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) 2015 Kei by Ken Mihara, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco -Kei- Memories in Clay, Japan Creative Centre, Mulan Gallery, Singapore / Art Taipei, Taiwan 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA
Selected Public Collections Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA / New Orleans Museum of Art, USA / Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan / Gifu Ceramics Museum, Japan / Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA / Victoria and Albert Museum, UK / Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA / Yale University Museum of Art, USA / Peabody Essex Museum, USA / National Museum of Modern Art, Japan / Takagi Bonsai Museum, Japan / Tanabe Art Museum, Japan / East-Hiroshima City Museum, Japan / Tokyo Sankei Building, Japan / The Gotoh Museum, Japan / Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, USA / Mary And Jackson Burke Foundation, USA / Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA / Musée Tomo, Japan / Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan / Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA / Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA / Shimane Art Museum, Japan / Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan / La Casa de Japón, Argentina / National Gallery of Australia, Australia / Canberra University Art Museum, Australia / Spencer Museum of Art, USA / The Museum of Asian Art, Germany / Walters Art Gallery, USA / Brooklyn Museum, USA / Asian Art Museum, USA / Lotte Reimers-Stiftung, Germany / Grassi Museum, Germany / The Japan Foundation, Japan / Embassy of Japan (Japan Creative Center), Singapore / Mint Museum, USA / Musée Ariana, Switzerland
28 Alternate view 29 AKIHIRO MAETA 前田昭博
Minimalism as Absolute
“With the use of simple forms, I strive to create white porcelain that is distinctly my own.”
White Porcelain Faceted Vase by Akihiro Maeta (2019) White porcelain, glaze 30 H32.3 × Φ29.9 cm AKIHIRO MAETA
About the Artist 1954 Born in Tottori, Tottori Prefecture, Japan / Lives and works in Tottori An influential figure in the world of Japanese ceramics, Akihiro Maeta (1954- ) creates elegant and minimal sculptures from white porcelain that are deeply inspired by the Selected Awards th vessel form. Minimalism in ceramics can be easily mistaken for an inability to decorate 1991 Mainichi Shimbun Newspaper Prize, 11 Japan Ceramics Exhibition th or experiment. For Maeta, this is far from truth. The artist’s trademark landscapes are, in 1993 Kenkichi Tomimoto Prize, 48 Shinsho Craft Exhibition fact, the simplest of silhouettes coalesced with the purity of white, and his serene works 1999 Tottori City Cultural Award th reveal Maeta’s unique ability to give birth to riveting, simple and alluring beauty that is 2000 Asahi Shimbun Newspaper Prize, 47 Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition shorn of excess. Having been collected by 22 public institutions throughout the world, 2004 Japan Ceramic Society Award in particular the Musée Ariana in Geneva, the British Museum in London, and the 2005 Shinsho Craft Exhibition Grand Prize National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Maeta is considered to be one of the leading 2007 Purple Medal for Artistic Achievement, Government of Japan ceramic sculptors of his generation. Subsequently, he has been awarded the Purple 2010 Tottori Prefecture Art Cultural Prize Medal of Honour in 2007 by the Government of Japan, and was designated a Living 2012 Designated Tottori Prefecture Intangible Cultural Property Holder for Ceramics National Treasure by the Emperor of Japan in 2013. 2013 Designated Living National Treasure by the Government of Japan
Selected Exhibitions 1979 5th Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition, Japan (selected every time since) 1983 30th Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition, Japan (selected 23 times since) 1996 New Expressions in Porcelain: Developments in the 1990s, The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, Japan About the Work 2002 International Asia-Pacific Contemporary Ceramics Invitational Exhibition, Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan Surprisingly, the serenely faceted silhouettes of Maeta’s works are not formed on a 100 Years of Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan wheel. Instead, Maeta prefers to free himself from the formative and sculptural 2006 Asian Ceramic Delta: Japan, South Korea and Taiwan limitations imposed by this tool, and for this reason, only uses it to initially throw the 2007 Crafting Beauty in Modern Japan, The British Museum, London, UK basic shapes of his work. Then, using his bare hands, the artist begins to push and 2009 Akihiro Maeta - Form in White Porcelain, Tottori Prefectural Museum, Japan sculpture the surfaces of his works into individually ridged sides. Essentially, the artist’s 2010 Collect, London, UK (’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15) plump silhouettes are created through free-forming using the sheer strength of his hands The Musèe Tomo Prize Contemporary Ceramics for the Tea Ceremony, Musèe Tomo, and fingers. After the placements of his edges are determined, Maeta trims and prepares Tokyo, Japan his surfaces using a blade to completely erase his hand marks from his facades. This final 2012 Vallauris Biennale, France faceting/polishing completes the contemplative creative process of the artist’s work. 2013 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’14, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) After glazing, the work is consecutively fired in a gas kiln at a relatively lower temperature 2014 The Present of Living National Treasures, Tokyo National Museum, Japan than traditional porcelain, to imbue the work with a soft, milky whiteness. Ultimately, 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA Maeta’s works reveal far more than superficial functionality, and are infused with the Treasures of the World from the British Museum, National Museum of Singapore, Singapore artist’s deep philosophy of expressing the true beauty of porcelain through the elegance EAF Monaco, Monaco of minimal simplicity. 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA
Public Collections Foreign Ministry, Government of Japan / Japan Foundation, Japan / Agency of Cultural Affairs, Japan / Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan / Shiga Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan / National Museum of Modern Art, Japan / Tottori Prefectural Museum, Japan / East Hiroshima City Museum of Art, Japan / Everson Museum, USA / Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA / Musée Ariana, Switzerland / Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia / Auckland Museum, New Zealand / British Museum, UK / The Tanabe Museum of Art, Japan / Sano Toseki Museum of Art, Japan / MOA Museum of Art, Japan / Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Japan / Icheon World Ceramic Centre, Korea / Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA / Jingu Museum, Mie Prefecture, Japan / Gitter-Yelen Foundation, USA
32 33 NIYOKO IKUTA 生田丹代子
Swirling Rhythms in Glass
“The image that impresses itself on the viewer represents the true and final nature of my work.”
Swing-150 by Niyoko Ikuta (2019) Laminated sheet glass 34 H56.6 × W37 × D33 cm NIYOKO IKUTA
About the Artist About the Work
The history of glass art in Japan is a relatively youthful one. Yet Ikuta’s works capture “the complexity of light as it this reality is hardly a bane but a blessing, for glass artists are reflects, refracts and passes through cut cross not shackled by the constrictions imposed on their creativity by sections of sheet glass”. Conveyed and entrapped the towering ghosts of tradition. It is within this context that in her glass sculptures are the artist’s inner the creativity of Kyoto artist Niyoko Ikuta (1953- ) flows freely sensibilities; with a particular emotion in mind, the into her spiralling sheets of glass. Considered to be one of the artist first draws a basic sketch that best captures leading figures in Japanese glass art, Ikuta has enraptured her feelings at a certain point in time. After collectors and museums the world over for her dynamic glass transferring this sketch into a descriptive blueprint, objects, executed with emphatic lyricism and spellbinding Ikuta proceeds to materialise the design through precision. With the artist’s glass works collected by leading cutting thin and separate laminated sheets of plate public institutions such as the V&A in London, the Musée de glass into her desired form with the use of a glass- design et d'arts appliqués contemporains (MUDAC) in cutter. Each plate is then attached using clear Switzerland, the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe in surgical glue that hardens and disappears under Germany, as well as the National Museum of Art in Osaka and ultraviolet light. The resulting works are graceful the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, Ikuta’s works manifestations of Ikuta’s inner consciousness, and continue to inspire a generation of younger artists in the the same can be said for her new work featured increasingly influential world of glass. herein, entitled Swing.
1953 Born in Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan / Lives and works in Kyoto Selected Awards 1982 Grand Prize, Japan Stained Glass Grand Show, Nomura Hall, Tokyo 1985 First Prize, 1st Japan International Glass Conference, Yamaha Tsumagoi, Gunma 1986 Mayor's Prize, Kyoto Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art 2014 Kyoto Art Culture Prize, Kyoto Chuo Shinkin Bank, Kyoto 2017 Kyoto City Cultural Merit Award, Kyoto City Alternate view Selected Exhibitions 1992 Contemporary Glass Sculpture, New Jersey Center for Arts, USA Glass from Ancient Crafts to Contemporary Art, The Morris Museum, USA 1993 Heller Gallery, New York, USA 1994 Vänersborg Glass Festival, Vänersborg, Sweden Habitat Galleries, Pontiac, New York, USA 1995 Japanese Studio Crafts, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK 2003 The Glass Vessel, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, USA 2009 Collect, London, UK (’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15) Voices of Contemporary Glass, The Corning Museum of Glass, New York, USA 2011 Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2012 SOFA Chicago, USA (’13, ’14, ’15) 2013 Gallery Nakamura, Kyoto, Japan 2014 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’15, ’16, ’17) / TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) Asia Week New York, USA / Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) 2015 Takashimaya Department Store Gallery, Kyoto, Japan 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco / Art Taipei, Taiwan 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA Solo Exhibition, Gallery Hana Asagi, Tokyo, Japan
Public Collections Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, Germany / State Lemberk Chateau Crystalex, Czech Republic / Musée de Design et d'Arts Appliqués Contemporains Lausanne, Switzerland / Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, The Netherlands / Yokohama Museum of Art, Japan / Notojima Glass Museum, Japan / Suntory Museum, Japan / The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan / The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan / Corning Museum of Glass, USA / Victoria and Albert Museum, UK / Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, UK/ Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA / The Ringling Museum of Art, USA
Commissions in Architecture Kyoto Brighton Hotel, Japan / Hotel Seashore Mitsumisaki, Japan / OS Building, Japan / Hiroshima Women's College, Japan / Yao City Gymnasium, Japan / The Japanese Embassy, Vietnam / Tokyo Memorial Park, Japan / The Kobe Shimbun, Japan / The Kobe Shimbun Matsukata Hall, Japan / Pfizer Japan Inc. Laboratory, Japan / NTT DATA, Komaba, Japan / Aoyama Park Tower, Japan / Imabari Funeral Hall, Japan / ANA Hotel Okayama, Japan / The Peninsula Tokyo, Japan / Shima Kanko Hotel Bay Suite, Japan
36 Alternate view EIKO KISHI 岸映子
Revealing Truth in Clay
“Crack them open, and you will find the same colours within. Exteriors revealing interiors – this is what I wish to express.”
Shinsho Wo Tsumu (Forms Within) by Eiko Kishi (2019) Stoneware with coloured chamotte 38 H85 × W76 × D16 cm EIKO KISHI
About the Artist About the Work
Like jewels embedded in the most intricate of treasures, thousands of Dynamic sculptures with bold minimal forms and an instantly recognisable array pebbled, colourful chamottes dot the surfaces of Kyoto artist Eiko of colours, Kishi’s creations are pain-staking testaments to the observance of the Kishi’s (1948- ) towering ceramic sculptures. In fact, up to thirteen importance of craftsmanship within the making of great beauty. Kishi’s chamottes varying pigments and pastels can be found sprinkled throughout the are pulverized pellets of fired, coloured clays that are kneaded directly into the artist’s creations. Yet even if one were to slice her work in half, the Shigaraki base clay before formation; for this reason, Kishi’s works can be incised same colours would be found entrapped within its deepest depths. from any angle or dimension to reveal hidden rainbows underneath her surfaces. Not affiliated with any particular movement or group, Kishi has long Using both slab-building and hand-pinching, Kishi first shapes a generally abstract worked alone, valiantly honing her works over the years without dependence silhouette through elongated blocks of clay, and then with the use of a kanna knife, on the associations that commonly dictate artistic circles within Japan. Yet she striates the surfaces of the damp material, creating linear patterns that sharpen throughout the decades, Kishi has built a presence within the ceramic avant- and tighten a work’s overall form. Then with the use of needles, Kishi meticulously garde of Kyoto that has garnered the respect of not only her peers but of pokes small holes into the colored grogs that extend upon the entirety of her work, the world, as evidenced by acquisitions of her works by 30 public and with the use of a small brush, Kishi further applies various colored slip into collections, thereby spearheading the equal recognition of female artists each and every hole on the facades of her works: a dizzying process, to say the within Japanese ceramics. Kishi is now widely considered to be one of the least. Lastly, she applies a transparent glaze to her surfaces. After a bisque-firing of most celebrated woman artists of her generation, and her achievements 850 degrees Celsius, Kishi fires the work again at a temperature of up to 1250 have paved the way for other woman artists in a multitude of genres to degrees Celsius. Both firings are completed within an electric kiln. break free from the conservative constrictions imposed by traditional Having worked with the artist for nearly 20 years, Yufuku is proud to reintroduce Japanese society. In this light, it is difficult to understate her extraordinary Kishi’s latest oeuvre to a discerning international audience at TEFAF Maastricht, a contributions within the spectrum of contemporary Japanese art. powerful statement that symbolizes both the elegance and the will of the artist herself.
1948 Born in Nara Prefecture, Japan 1980 Ceramic Art Institute of Tekisui Museum of Art / Lives and works in Kyoto 1999 Lectured at Suwon University, and Kyong Hee University, Seoul, South Korea / Northern Clay Center, MN 2000 Lectured at Saint Catherine University, Minnesota, and Colby-Sawyer College, North Hampshire, USA 2001 Artist in Residence in Seto, creating works, lecturing and offering workshops at Seto / Ceramic and Glass Art Center, Aichi Prefecture 2006 Workshop at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga, Japan 2008 Lecture at Harvard University, Boston, USA
Selected Awards and Exhibitions Close-up 1981 Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition (’85, ’87, ’91, ’93, ’95, ’97) 1984 Special Prize, Kyoto Arts & Crafts Exhibition (’83, ’85, ’87, ’94, ’97) 1985 Grand Prix, Asahi Ceramic Exhibition (’87, ’90, ’84-’97) / Mainichi Newspaper Prize, Ministry of Culture Prize Women’s Association of Ceramic Art (’80) 1991 The Mayor Prize, Kyoto City Exhibition at Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (’92, ’93-’98 selected) Grand Prix, The 20th Choza Ceramic Art Exhibition (’93 Selected) / New Artists Exhibition - Ceramic Art (’94) 1995 Fine Art Prize, The 4th Togei Biennale (’91) 1999 Silver Medal Prize, The 51st International Competition for Contemporary Ceramic Art 2000 Five McKnight Artists, Minneapolis, MN, USA / The WSU Exhibition, MN, USA 2001 Art and Crafts Kyoto Exhibition, Edinburgh, UK / Solo Exhibition - Master of Clay Five Artists from Kyoto, Barry Friedman Gallery, New York, NY, USA 2002 The 25th Anniversary Prize, Kyoto Arts & Craft association Exhibition 2005 Contemporary Clay – Japanese Ceramics for the new century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA 2006 Solo Exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Kyoto, Japan 2007 Cheerful Kyoyaki Ceramics Exhibition, The 100th anniversary of the founding of Takashimaya / Art Gallery in Osaka, Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan. Generosity in Clay - from the Natalie Fitzgerald Collection, Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture,CA, USA 2008 Rays of Light - The Intricate Ceramic Art of Kishi Eiko, Joan Mirviss Ltd., New York, NY, USA 2009 Grand Prize, Paramita Museum Ceramic Art Exhibition / Touch Fire - Contemporary Japanese Ceramics by Women Artists, Smith College Museum of Art, MA,USA Through the Seasons: Japanese Art in Nature, The Clark Museum, MA, USA Solo Exhibition - Nature's Poem - Shizen no Shi, Joan B. Mirviss LTD, New York, NY, USA 2010 Solo Exhibition - Eiko Kishi, Clara Scremini Gallery, Paris, France 2011 Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Sculptures by Four Women Artists, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA, USA Masters in the Making, Lesley Kehoe Gallery, Victoria, Australia 2012 Recollected Vistas - The Ceramic Art of Kishi Eiko, Joan B. Mirviss LTD, New York, NY, USA Beauty in All Things: Japanese art and design, Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY, USA 2013 Japanese Ceramics for the Twenty-First Century, The Betsy and Robert Feinberg Collection, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD, USA The Minister of Education Prize, The 36th Kyoto Association of Craft Artists Exhibition 2014 Points of Departure Treasures from the Brooklyn Museum, Japan Society, NY, USA FIRED EARTH WOVEN BAMBOO Contemporary Japanese Ceramics and Bamboo Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA 2015 Unfolding Worlds - Japanese Screens and Contemporary Ceramics from the Gitter-Yelen Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, TX, USA Ancient to Modern Japanese Contemporary Ceramics and their Sources, San Antonio Museum of Art, TX, USA Contemporary Japanese Ceramics in Global Context, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, USA 2016 Sculptural Turn Contemporary Japanese Ceramics from the Kempner and Stein Collection, Asian Art / Museum, CA, USA 2017 Solo Exhibition - Shinsho wo tsumu, Nihonbashi Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo and / Kyoto, Japan / TEFAF New York, USA TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands / Infinite Blue – Group Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA New Forms, New Voices: Japanese Ceramics from the Gitter-Yelen Collection, New Orleans Museum of Art, USA 2018 Group Exhibition, The Tsinghua University Art Museum in Beijing, China
Public Collections Brooklyn Museum, USA / Metropolitan Museum of Art, USA / Minneapolis Institute of Arts, USA / Museum of Art and Design, USA / Museum of Fine Arts, USA / Museum of Fine Arts, USA / Victoria & Albert Museum, UK/ National Museum of Scotland, UK / New Orleans Museum of Art, USA / Northern Clay Center, USA / Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA / Hamilton Art Gallery, Australia / The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, USA / International Ceramic Museum, Italy / Kecskemet International Ceramics Studio, Hungary / Musée Cernuschi, France / Musée nationale de ceramiques, France / Sekiguchi Museum, Japan / Seto City Art Museum, Japan / Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan / Smith College Museum of Art, USA / New Taipei City Yingee Ceramics Museum, Taiwan / Tokoname City, Japan / Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, USA / Yale University Art Gallery, USA / Asian Art Museum, USA / Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, USA/ Crocker Art Museum, USA / Cincinnati Art Museun, USA / Tsinghua University Art Museum, China 40 Alternate view RUIKO IMAI “What is left behind is the warmth of memories entwined in glass.” 今井瑠衣子
Memories Entwined in Glass
reminiscence
About the Artist About the Work
The fragile memories of youth, captured within the Entitled “reminiscence
1991 Born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan 2014 Tama Art University Graduate School 2017 Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop / Lives and works in Toyama Prefecture, Japan Selected Awards 2014 Award of Excellence, Toyama City Institute of Glass Art Graduation Exhibition 2015 Selected, 72nd Kanazawa City Art Craft Competition / Selected, Glass ’15 in Japan (’18) 2016 Award of Meitetsu M’za, 73rd Kanazawa City Art Craft Competition 2017 Selected, TALENTE / Award of Excellence, 73rd Kanazawa City Art Craft Competition Selected, Award of Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop Award of Excellence, Ecchu Art Festa, Toyama Prefectural Artistic and Cultural Association 2018 Selected, 7th Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition in Sanyoonoda Selected, Toyama International Glass Exhibition Selected Exhibitions 2015 Ruiko Imai Solo Exhibition, Gallery Ten, Kanazawa, Japan 2016 Solo Exhibition -Reminiscence-, Gallery Prism Plus, Tokyo, Japan 2017 Solo Exhibition, Gallery DiEGO, Tokyo, Japan Duet Exhibition – Hidenori Tsumori and Ruiko Imai, arflex, Tokyo, Japan 2018 Palm Beach M+C, USA / Reminiscence – Memories in Glass, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Seattle Art Fair, USA / Exhibition of Imai Ruiko, Kurodatoen, Tokyo, Japan / Art Miami, USA 2019 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands Alternate view
Public Collections Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop, Japan
44 45 KANJIRO MORIYAMA 森山寛二郎
Loops, Lines and Curves
"I search for beauty in abstraction using materials and techniques often commonly associated with the utilitarian."
Kai (Turn) by Kanjiro Moriyama (2019) Wheel-thrown stoneware with glaze 46 H58 × W40 × D50 cm KANJIRO MORIYAMA
About the Artist About the Work
The symbolic leader of a younger generation of emerging Yufuku artists in By throwing individually large, cylindrical pots and cutting them while their late 20's to early 30's who are giving birth to wildly imaginative still wet, Moriyama has devised a method of attaching separately thrown artworks far removed from rustic preconceptions of what their respective forms together to create an intriguing, unique whole. What is important materials can achieve aesthetically, Kanjiro Moriyama (1984- ) has to note, however, is that his silhouettes are impossible to form by hand- mesmerised audiences for his uncanny ability to create dynamically building, and his loops, lines and curves can only be realised by the oscillating sculptures from the humble potter's wheel, a tool predominantly wheel. After cutting and glazing, the respective pieces are bisque-fired, used for the mass production of vessels and not for abstract and unique and then an initial main firing takes place at a temperature of 1250 works of art made with clay. degrees Celsius within a gas kiln. It is only at the next and final main firing wherein the individual parts are attached with glaze and fired/ Hailing from the idyllic kiln site of Koishiwara in Fukuoka, Kyushu, the fused together - an intricate, complex and extremely difficult process. village is known as a centre for Mingei pottery, and is far removed from any Yet technique and material are only means to an end, and both thrown common connection with the world of abstraction. Yet from this traditional clay and fire are consciously chosen by Moriyama to conjure and realise locale has sprung forth great innovation in the works of Moriyama, and it is a beauty that not only lies within, but can only be realised by the this young artist who embraces the clay of his hometown with a penchant selection of clay, wheel and fire. Luscious silhouettes combined with for the sculptural. Captivating the Japanese ceramic scene in 2007 by razor edges, drenched in glazes both white and black. In particular, becoming the youngest Grand Prize winner of the prestigious Asahi Moriyama’s latest work for TEFAF will be the first time that a new, Ceramic Exhibition at the early age of 23, and winning a slew of major, grayish, metallic glaze will be presented and debuted to an international nationally-recognized awards since, Moriyama is one of Yufuku’s most audience. promising clay artists of his generation.
1984 Born in Koishiwara, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan 2007 Saga University / Lives and works in Koishiwara Selected Awards 2007 Grand Prize, Asahi Ceramics Exhibition 2013 Mayor’s Prize, The 110th Kyushu / Yamaguchi Ceramic Art Exhibition Encouragement Award, Kobe Biennale Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition 2014 Award of Excellence, Ceramic Art of Today, 3rd Hagi Grand Prize Exhibition 14th Kakiemon Memorial Award, The 2nd TOBI Ceramic Art Exhibition 2016 Grand Prize, The 4th TOBI Ceramic Art Exhibition / Minister's Prize, Arita International Ceramics Competition 2017 Nominated, The 24th Japan Ceramics Exhibition / Selected, The 11th Mino International Ceramics Competition Selected, The 7th Kikuchi Ceramics Biennale Selected Exhibitions 2002 The 85th Saga Art Exhibition, Saga Prefectural Art Museum, Japan (’03, ’04, ’06) 2003 The 33rd Nagasaki Ceramic Art Exhibition, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Japan The 53rd Saga Prefectural Exhibition, Saga Prefectural Art Museum, Japan (’04, ’07) 2004 The 20th Contemporary Arts and Crafts Exhibition of Kyushu, The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Japan The 25th Chikugo Art Exhibition, Sathankusu Chikugo, Japan 2005 The 102nd Kyushu Yamaguchi Ceramic Art Exhibition, / The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Japan (’07, ’12, ’13) 2006 Group Exhibition, The Saga City Cultural Museum, Japan 2007 The 28th Choza Prize Contemporary Ceramic Art Exhibition, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Japan (’13) 45th Commemorative Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition, The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan 2008 64th Fukuoka Prefectural Art Exhibition, Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art (’09, ’10, ’11, ’12) Mashiko Ceramic Art Exhibition, Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Japan 2009 Young Artists Group Exhibition, House of Ryoichi Yamaguchi, Japan 2010 KUMAMOTO FINAL Biennale, Contemporary Art Museum Kumamoto, Japan Contemporary Ceramics Hagi Grand Prize Exhibition III, Hagi Uragami Museum, Japan 2011 9th International Ceramics Festival, Mino, Japan Kobe Biennale Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition, The Museum of Ceramic Art / BB Plaza Museum of Art, Japan 2012 lines and curves Exhibition, Fukuoka, Japan 2013 Selected, 58th Faenza International Ceramic Exhibition, Faenza, Italy (’15) Selected, 5th Kikuchi Biennale Ceramic Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan 22nd Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Japan 2014 Tobi Ceramic Art Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan / Collect, London, UK (’15) The Beauty of Materials, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany loops. lines. curves - kanjiro moriyama Solo exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Kiri Tsugi, Solo exhibition, Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan 2015 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’16, ’17) / Japan!, Mouvements Modernes, Paris, France / Art Miami, USA (’16, ’17, ’18) 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco / Art Taipei, Taiwan end of the world supernova – kanjiro moriyama, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2017 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’18, ’19) / TEFAF New York Spring, USA 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA / fly me to the moon – kanjiro moriyama, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Selected Public Collections Victoria & Albert Museum, UK /Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA / Faenza International Ceramics Museum, Italy / Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA / The Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Muller Museum, Dallas, USA / The Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Japan Alternate view
48 49 TAKAFUMI ASAKURA 朝倉隆文
A Revival in Japanese Painting
“My fountain of inspiration flows from the material that is black ink.”
Beautiful Mountain in Full Bloom by Takafumi Asakura (2019) Black ink on Japanese paper, aluminum leaf, gofun seashell powder 50 H130.3 × W194 cm TAKAFUMI ASAKURA
About the Artist About the Work
Takafumi Asakura (1978- ) is a painter who blends into Asakura takes great care in choosing his essential materials of ink, brush his traditional black ink works a zeitgeist for the 21st and canvas before painting his elegant works. Yet he is far from a century, displaying both the highest levels of traditionalist, in that his subject matter can range from legendary beasts and craftsmanship whilst experimenting with abstraction and Shinto gods to the aforementioned abstract movements within himself. The the avant-garde. The young artist wields but a single type 21st century calls for a contemporary renaissance in painting, one that takes of ink and brush to paint the most intricate of Nihonga- Nihonga to a new playing field of possibilities, and Asakura provides the style paintings; negative space is filled entirely with pivotal key to this brave new world in Japanese painting. For his latest work ancient calligraphy, whilst beacons of spiralling black ink for TEFAF Maaastricht 2019, Asakura for the first time attaches aluminum take on the appearance of mythical beasts or elements leaf directly upon Japanese washi paper, a coalescence of contrasting of nature. Yet intricacy and technique are ancillary to materials to express luscious peonies blooming next to a thunderous flow whether an artist has the power to paint moving works of water over abstract boulders of ink and leaf. The majesty of the peonies, of art. Asakura’s paintings are indeed mesmerising far from simply figurative depictions of the flower but blooming with an poems based on both Shinto scripture and the almost violent elegance that the artist sees in his mind’s eye, is entwined in movements within his own soul. At the same time, quick and delicate strokes of the artist’s brush, brimming ebulliently with Asakura consciously chooses to paint on both washi the energy of both life and death. Juxtaposed with the peonies is the power Japanese paper and aluminium leaf. In fact, the artist is of the boulders, painted in an abstract style that is often associated with the first artist in traditional Japanese painting to ever Asakura’s works in aluminum, and is heightened and accentuated by the attempt to paint on aluminium, and it is this progressive artist’s use of aluminum leaf interspersed with touches of seashell powder. nature, the juxtaposition between traditional painting The mountains that can be seen in the far left background gives the work and contemporary materials, which makes Asakura an epic depth of fantasy, and the viewer is soon transported to a world that unique. One of the youngest painters to become a juror only the artist can see. As with the best of Asakura's paintings, there lies at the Nitten Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, the art of within an enthralling and potent danger, an utter and immediate urgency of Takafumi Asakura has only just begun. mythic proportions. Epic and visceral, Asakura’s paintings capture the above and beyond.
1978 Born in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan 2002 Tama Art University Graduate School / Lives and works in Yokohama Selected Awards 2002 Nitten Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (selected every year since) 2003 Nisshun Fine Arts Exhibition (selected every year since) 2010 Special Selection Award, Nitten Japan Fine Arts Exhibition (’12) 2013 Work awarded Special Selection, Nisshun Fine Arts Exhibition 2015 Juror, Nitten Japan Fine Arts Exhibition Selected Exhibitions 2003 Shirota Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2010 Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (’11, ’12) 2012 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan (’13) Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan 2013 Collect, London, UK (’14, ’15) TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’14, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) 2014 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’15, ’16, ’17) Asia Week New York, USA Resonances, Galerie Pierre Bonnefille, Paris, France Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA EAF Monaco, Monaco Art Taipei, Taiwan 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA Of Legends and Lore - Japanese Ink Paintings by Takafumi Asakura, Serindia Gallery, Bangkok, Thailand 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA Takafumi Asakura, Taimei Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Public Collections Close-up Spencer Museum of Art, USA / The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Centre - Vassar College, USA / Minneapolis Institute of Art, USA
52 53 OSAMU YOKOYAMA 横山修
Virtuosity in Bamboo
“Bamboo is naturally beautiful, so it is the artist who must strive to bring out a beauty that surpasses its natural allure.”
bolero by Osamu Yokoyama (2019) Cut, bound and woven bamboo 54 H97 × W49 × D43 cm OSAMU YOKOYAMA
About the Artist
The aesthetics enshrined within the material of bamboo - its lustre, strength and resilience, represent the foundations of Japanese beauty, cherished for centuries on this island nation in the world of tea and in the daily rhythms of everyday life. Yet at the same time, bamboo has come to symbolise the very persona of Japan and the Japanese people, who have endured with steadfast fortitude the hardships borne from both human and natural disasters. Bamboo, however, is not simply a material suited for the creation of traditional arts and crafts. Rather, a new generation of artists have wielded the material with a new-found vigour, breathing life into its unique textures as a compelling material within contemporary art.
The young Osamu Yokoyama (1980- ) is one such artist, who finds within bamboo an ideal material for self-expression. For it is within its bends and curves, its ability to be cut, bound and stretched to its limits, that one can find the meandering, ethereal and poignant vicissitudes of life itself. Yokoyama does not hail from a storied lineage or distinct tradition, unlike many of the 3rd or 4th generation bamboo artists working today. Instead, Yokoyama was a graphic designer who eschewed a salaried position to delve into the world of bamboo, taking his wife and young daughter to Beppu, the mecca of Japanese bamboo art, and apprenticing to leading bamboo artist Jin Morigami.
Yokoyama is an up-and-coming symbol of a new wave within bamboo art, pushing the boundaries of his material in fresh and captivating ways. To capture a beauty unable to be expressed by other means, Osamu Yokoyama viscerally wields bamboo into forms previously unfathomable.
About the Work
Using only madake bamboo that is indigenous to Japan, Yokoyama differs from his contemporaries in that his works are predominantly ‘bound’ rather than ‘woven’, thereby allowing the artist to create large, sculptural forms that are almost architectural in their dynamism, accentuating the raw and material beauty of bamboo. Much of the techniques used by Yokoyama are self-taught inventions used to augment and shape bamboos in ways that would traditionally be frowned upon, such as heating and gluing. Yet it is during the dialogue with his material that the artist finds the final form of his work, and the techniques and materials used are the means to an end – the expression of an inner beauty that can only be realised by bamboo.Yokoyama’s work for TEFAF Maastricht 2019 is the work featured herein entitled ‘bolero’, which embodies the life energies of water, its flow and ebb, its rhythm and waves, in virtuosic movements within bamboo’s natural silhouettes.
1980 Born in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, Japan 2016 Apprenticeship, Jin Morigami Studio / Lives and works in Beppu
Selected Awards 2015 New Artist Award, The 20th Japan Bamboo Art Exhibition Selected, The 55th Japan Crafts Exhibition 2016 Selected, The 21st Japan Bamboo Art Exhibition Selected, The 56th Japan Crafts Exhibition 2018 Award of Excellence, The 23rd Japan Bamboo Art Exhibition
Selected Exhibitions 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA 2017 TEFAF New York, USA rewind – osamu yokoyama - Debut Exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Art Miami, USA (’18) 2018 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’19) Seattle Art Fair, USA 56 Alternate view 57 MASARU NAKADA 中田雅巳
The Lines to Infinity
“How to carve lines in new porcelain silhouettes – this is the essence of creation.”
TOKI by Masaru Nakada (2019) Porcelain, glaze, pigments 58 H59 × W25.5 × D14.5 cm MASARU NAKADA
About the Artist About the Work
Masaru Nakada (1977- ) is representative of a younger Entitled TOKI, which means “to carve” in Japanese, generation of emerging contemporary Japanese artists Nakada’s debut body of work for TEFAF 2019 have who exhibit never-before-seen standards in mind- been created by porcelain slip-casting, a technique that boggling ‘uber-techniques,’ infused with an electric, pop has been transformed into a compelling medium for the sensibility inspired by the leaders of Japanese fashion creation of abstract sculpture through the historic and the storied porcelain traditions of yesteryear. careers of Sueharu Fukami and Shigekazu Nagae. Yet it Spending hours upon hours etching thin, straight lines is an incredibly difficult technique to fire successfully, within the surfaces of his objects with a metal needle, and to fully succeed took the artist nearly 3 years to Nakada would take even longer lengths of time to inlay master. coloured glazes into each etched line. It is this painstaking and meticulous process which distinguishes After creating a plaster cast and filling it with liquid Nakada from his contemporaries, and is emblematic of porcelain, Nakada drains the excess liquid after drying an emphasis in the detailed “hands of the artist” that and begins to further carve and hone his sleek forms have been lost in today’s contemporary art. Nakada’s using a blade used for faceting. After carving, he applies prowess at the potter’s wheel is extraordinary, evidenced a mixture of glaze and pigments onto the surfaces of his by his uncanny ability to throw not only large but work, and then takes time to etch thin lines upon the beautifully elegant forms out of porcelain. surfaces of his works with the aforementioned metal pin, essentially dulling the blade after 15 lines. The new Yet for his debut at TEFAF 2019, Nakada will release works are fired in a two-stage firing, with the bisque for the first time a new body of work that has been slip- firing double the length of traditional porcelain firings cast, which allows the artist to create free and abstract in order to ensure that the work does not crack. Lastly, forms that will serve as dynamic canvases in porcelain. the piece is ultimately fired in a single main firing at a Collected by the Ibaraki International Ceramic Museum temperature of approx. 1230 to 1240 degrees Celsius for in Kasama, Japan and the Die Neue Sammlung in 11 hours. Sleek and brimming with a modern zeitgeist, Munich Germany, slip-casting opens a new frontier of Nakada’s new vistas in porcelain slip-casting have only possibilities for this up-and-coming artist from Ishikawa, just begun. Japan.
1977 Born in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan 1997 Ishikawa Prefectural Kutani Technical College / Lives and works in Ishikawa, Japan Selected Awards 2005 Prize, 7th International Ceramic Festival Mino 2006 Prize, 6th Mashiko Ceramic Exhibition Prize, Izushi Ceramic Triennale 2007 Prize, 4th World Ceramic Biennale Grand Prize, Kanazawa City Craft Exhibition 2011 Prize, Kikuchi Biennale Ceramic Exhibition Prize, Choza Ceramic Exhibition Selected, Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition (’13) Kitaguni Prize, Ishikawa Contemporary Art Exhibition (’13) 2014 Bavarian States Prize, Meister der Monderne Exhibition 2017 Modern Ceramics Encouragement Prize by The Japan Ceramic Society Selected, Kikuchi Biennale Ceramic Exhibition Selected Exhibitions 2012 Solo Exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (’14) Japan Zu Gast – Group Exhibition, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany 2013 Collect, the Saatchi Gallery, London, UK (’14) Porcelain at its Finest – Group Exhibition, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany 2014 Group Exhibition, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Japan (’16) 2015 Japan! – Group Exhibition, Mouvements Modernes, Paris, France 2017 Group Exhibition, Sato Memorial Museum of Art, Toyama, Japan 2018 Group Exhibition, Sapporo Art Park, Hokkaido, Japan The Beauty of the Porcelain – Group Exhibition, Galerie Marianne Heller, Germany
Public Collections Ibaraki International Ceramic Museum, Japan / Neue Sammlung, Germany
60 Alternate view 61 SACHI FUJIKAKE 藤掛幸智
Surrealism in Warped Glass
"To change an inanimate material into something soft, and to capture its transformation in form. I wish to stop the hands of time and enjoy the beauty that unfolds before me."
Vestige by Sachi Fujikake (2019) Blown, kiln-worked, sandblasted sheet glass 62 H46 × W50 × D35 cm SACHI FUJIKAKE
About the Artist About the Work
New ideas will flow into oceans of unforeseen beauty. Likewise, the Fujikake first takes individual sheets of white- works of Sachi Fujikake (1985- ) boldly defy and transcend the coloured glass of 2 different gradations and qualities of glass to realms unchartered, warping the material into sandblasts dotted perforations onto their surfaces ripples in time and space, tearing at its very fabric to melt it into Dali- after fusing the sheets together in a glory hole, thereby esque objects, surreal yet finite, completely original yet utterly eternal deepening the holes to heighten and accentuate the in its rippling majesty. Entitled Vestige, her works capture the remains shadows that form on her glass surfaces. After this of what is left behind, the beauty of glass as it turns from a hard initial process, Fujikake further attaches 6 sheets material into something soft, in many ways capturing the preciousness within her glory hole to form an essentially cubic of time itself as its continuum is bent, twisted and expanded into shape. After this basic form is created, Fujikake forms formerly unfathomable. The young Fujikake is quickly incredibly begins to blow the melting glass, thereby garnering a following within the world of glass, and has already been helping to warp and expand the glass in a bubble-like collected by the Alexander Tutsek Foundation in Germany, Kanazawa form. Such voluptuous, seemingly impossible Udatsuyama Craft Institute, Koganezaki Crystal Park, and most curvatures cannot be achieved by the use of sheet recently the Victoria & Albert Museum in 2015. Organic and free glass alone, and it is the combination of various glass flowing, crumpled yet inflated, and translucently, lusciously radiant, techniques – kiln-working, sand-blasting, and blowing Fujikake's works are mesmerising odes to an innovative new style of glass, that eloquently melts it into an entirely new abstraction in glass. The vestiges of light, embraced herein. spectrum of glass for the 21st century.
1985 Born in Aichi Prefecture, Japan 2006 Aichi University of Education 2011 Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop / Lives and works in Nagoya Selected Awards 2006 Forever Foundation, Overseas study scholarship 2009 Pilchuck Glass School Lino tagliapietra scholarship 2010 NHK Kanazawa Director Award, 24th Ishikawa Contemporary Craft Exhibition Chairman Award, Kanazawa Lacquer Trade Cooperation, Ishikawa Prefectural Design Exhibition 2011 Award of Excellence, Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop 2012 Award of Excellence, Takaoka Craft Exhibition Encouragement Award, KOGANEZAKI Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition Award of Excellence, Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop / New Glass Review 33 (’13) Jury Award, Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition in Sanyoonoda 2013 Honorable Mentions, The International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa 2016 Gold Prize, The International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa 2017 Selected, Young Glass 2018 Gold Prize, Toyama International Glass Exhibition / Selected, Sanyo Onoda Contemporary Glass Exhibition Selected Exhibitions 2006 Inspire Your Heart Exhibition, Coco Laboratory, Akita, Japan 2007 Duet Gallery APA, Aichi, Japan (’08, ’09, ’10, ’12) / December Show, Gallery APA, Aichi, Japan 26th Asahi Craft Art Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan 2008 47th Japan Craft Art Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan (’10) 2010 Forming Rainbows, Galerie Steine, Nagano, Japan / Forms of Tomorrow, Gallery sou, Kanazawa, Japan 31 Sensibilities – Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop Exhibition, Japan 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (’11, ’12) 2011 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan / VARIA Nagoya Art Fair, Nagoya, Japan 2012 Takaoka Craft Exhibition, Toyama, Japan KOGANEZAKI - Vessel Forms – Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition, Shizuoka, Japan Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition in Sanyoonoda, Yamaguchi, Japan HEART to HEART Craft Art Exhibition, Fukui, Japan / Art Fair Nagoya, Japan 2013 TARENTE, Germany / Transfiguration of Glass II, Gallery VOICE, Gifu, Japan The International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa, 21st Century Museum of Art, Ishikawa, Japan 2014 Collect, London, UK (’15) / Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) Alternate view 2015 Vestige – Sachi Fujikake Solo Exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’16, ’17) 2016 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’17, ’18, ’19) / Spring Masters New York, USA EAF Monaco, Monaco / Art Taipei, Taiwan 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA / Group Exhibition - life-world, Alexander Tutsek, Munich, Germany Group Exhibition – Young Glass, Ebeltoft Glass Museum, Denmark Vestige II – New Glass Works by Sachi Fujikake, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA / Toyama International Glass Exhibition, Japan
Selected Public Collections Alexander Tutsek Foundation, Germany / Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop, Japan / Koganezaki Crystal Park, Japan / Victoria and Albert Museum, UK / Glasmuseum Lette, Germany / Toyama Glass Museum, Japan 64 65 KOSUKE KATO 加藤貢介
Finding the Infinite in Damascus
“The organic flow of life and its infinite possibilities can be found within the surfaces of my Damascus steel.”
Aria by Kosuke Kato (2019) Hammered, polished Damascus steel 66 H93 × W30 × D16 cm KOSUKE KATO
About the Artist About the Work
Kosuke Kato (1988- ) of Kanagawa is one of the youngest Damascus steel is known as a hard gray metal artists at Yufuku, and represents an up-and-coming decorated with speckled, silvery ripples that resemble generation of metal artists in Japan who, while the flow of water, babbling streams and primordial understanding and embracing the storied traditions of pools of microcosms and microorganisms. Kato’s metal within Japanese history, strive for new vistas never creative process within Damascus is a highly intricate before seen in their respective materials. From samurai process akin to the forging of Katana samurai swords. swords to armour, from tea ceremony ware to ceremonial First taking 7 different sheets of iron ore and nickel, vessels, the material of metal has long been engrained in the artist piles them together and heats the materials the national consciousness as only second to ceramics, a into a single unit at a temperature of 1000 degrees more physically tactile and utilitarian material, abnd the Celsius. Once this temperature is reached, the process material of Damascus has no true roots in this island of hammering the metal, folding, then cutting the nation’s history. metal in two continues repeatedly, while throwing sand in to create and solidify a base billet. After In this light, Kato wields the metal that is Damascus steel compressing the billet, a pattern is embedded within with a minimal elegance, transforming the austere and the metal, and then polished out to achieve a metallic medieval material into a compelling medium for sheen. An acidic liquid is then applied to the surface, contemporary art. In Kato’s metal facades are the seven and the multi-layered Damascus motifs begin to rise seas of serenity, an eternal loop that plays on and on, his from within the metal and appear on Kato’s facades. minimal silhouettes sharp and accentuating the raw beauty Lastly, the prepared base metal is hammer-raised into of Damascus in splendour aplenty. With his feature work Kato’s distinctively serene and minimal silhouettes. at his debut exhibition at Yufuku in the summer of 2016 TEFAF Maastricht will mark the grand debut of being acquired by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kato’s new series Aria, which brings forth a riveting Kosuke Kato’s metal path is quickly being forged movement of ebb and flow upon sculptures that hang internationally. on the wall.
Close-up 1988 Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan 2010 Tamagawa University 2013 Hiroshima City University / Lives and works in Kanagawa Selected Awards 2010 Dean’s Award, Tamagawa University 2012 Hiroshima Mayor Award, Hiroshima KAZARU Exhibition Genbei Yamanaka Award, Imakara Mamesara Exhibition 2013 Yuji Akimoto Award, Art Craft of the Next Generation Exhibition 2015 Prix Villa Kujoyama, Institut français du Japon Kansaï Award, Imakara Mamesara Exhibition Selected Exhibitions 2009 Japan Traditional Metal Art Exhibition, Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Department Store, Tokyo, Japan (’10, ’11) 2012 Hiroshima KAZARU Exhibition, Hiroshima, Japan 2013 Takaoka City Art Craft Exhibition, Toyama, Japan Art Craft of the Next Generation Exhibition, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan (’14) 2014 Essence and Quality Kosuke Kato × Kei Ogawa Duet Exhibition, Gallery Hinoki plus, Japan 50th Kanagawa Prefectural Art Exhibition, Japan Tea Ceremony of Light, SHUHALLY, Kanagawa, Japan Selected Metal Art Exhibition of Hiroshima City University, Akitaka Municipal Yachiyonooka Museum of Art 2015 Nuit Blanche Kyoto, Japan / Solo exhibition, Powerful Expressions, Seikado Gallery, Kyoto, Japan 2016 Group exhibition, Keisho-Ha III: A New Materialism, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan kougei project vol.2, Ai Kowada Gallery, Tokyo, Japan view – Kosuke Kato Solo exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2017 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore / TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’18, ’19) Evolution of Metal Works, Wako, Tokyo, Japan 2018 Palm Beach M + C, USA / Seattle Art Fair, USA / Art Miami, USA
Public Collections Philadelphia Museum of Art
68 Close-up AYANE MIKAGI 三鑰彩音
Nihonga New Wave
“Like writing a diary, my paintings turn the subconscious into consciousness, deeply entwined with memories lived and emotions revealed.”
Wisteria by Ayane Mikagi (2019) Japanese pigments on washi paper, mounted on canvas 70 H145.5 × W89.4 cm AYANE MIKAGI
About the Artist About the Work
Storied traditions in the indigenous type of Japanese painting called Using natural ingredients such as the grinded Nihonga, placing emphasis on uniquely Japanese materials, techniques powder of precious stones, minerals and seashells, and conventions, have thrived in Japan for nearly 1,000 years, and the polychromatic ‘paint’ used in Nihonga are the continues into the present. Yet its present incarnation is often mired elements found in nature, and are commonly in the idolisation of Western materials and subject matter, and the applied to traditionally hand-made Japanese paper differences between Western oil painting and Nihonga have been or silk using a form of hide glue. In her most recent greatly convoluted, with an inability to distinguish one from another. work ‘Wisteria’, Mikagi is painting what cannot be seen – the emotions that bubble from underneath It is within this context that the emergence of Ayane Mikagi (1988- ), the veneer of flower-filled superficiality, the depths one of the brightest young painters of Nihonga, can be understood, of the heart that pulsate within her very being, even who, with contemporaries such as fellow Yufuku artist and Tama capturing the darkness of flowers as they melt into University of Arts alumni Takafumi Asakura and Kentaro Sato, are acid-like memories in technicolor. Layers upon trying to create a new wave of Japanese painting for the 21st century, layers of colour transmit a depth that is often lost in with an exhilarating zeitgeist focusing on traditional Japanese today’s Japanese painting. Sensual and striking, techniques yet placing emphasis on innovative methods of abstraction Mikagi’s abstractions give way to an inner nightscape never before featured or focused within the medium. Winning a slew that brims within Mikagi herself, her paintings of awards since 2012 and already placed in two public collections in abstract poetry that brings forth a new day and age Japan, her paintings are at once evocative, luscious and emphatic, and of abstraction within the genre of Nihonga. are most often idyllic landscapes found within her mind’s eye, controlled and painted carefully in layered, raw emotion.
1988 Born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan 2015 Tama Art University Graduate School / Lives and works in Tokyo Selected Awards 2012 Award of Excellence, The 23rd Garyuzakura Japanese Painting Exhibition / Grand Prize, The 12th Sato Taisei Art Exhibition 2013 Award of Excellence, JASSO Students of the Year 2014 Selected, The 16th Setsuryosha-Firenze Prize Exhibition / Selected, The 50th Kanagawa Art Exhibition Selected, The 25th Mitsubishi Corporation Art Gate Program 2015 The 25th Sato International Cultural Foundation Scholarship The 2nd Kamiyama Foundation Art Support Program Scholarship / Selected, Shinsei Art Exhibition 2016 Award of Excellence, “FACE 2016” Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Art Award Exhibition Selected, Japan Arts Foundation Scholarship Program / Selected, The 34th Ueno Royal Museum Art Exhibition Selected, “Seed” Yamatane Museum Japanese Painting Award Selected Exhibitions 2012 The 23rd Garyuzakura Japanese Painting Grand Prize Exhibition, The Museum of Fine Arts Gifu, Japan The 1st Mirai-no-Shukakusai “The Harvest Festival of the future”, Gifu, Japan 2013 The 12th Sato Taisei Prize Art Exhibition, Aichi, Japan 2014 Art Aoi Iwami, Art Universities Scholarship Exhibition of Japanese Paintings, Japan The 16th Setsuryosha-Firenze Prize Exhibition, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan The 50th Kanagawa Art Exhibition, Japan 2015 Joint Graduation Exhibition of 5 Art Universities, The National Art Center Tokyo, Japan (’17) 50 FACES, Reijinsha Gallery, Tokyo, Japan / “Soleil”, Surugadai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Shinsei Art Exhibition, Shinseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan “INTRO4”, Exhibition of Younger Generation Artists-selected by Fuyuhiko Yamamoto, Tokyo, Japan “Shibuya Style vol.9”, Tokyo, Japan / The 22nd Sesshu International Art Society Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan Ayane Mikagi, -faraway-, Art Space 88, Tokyo, Japan 2016 Roppongi Art Week, Tokyo, Japan “FACE 2016”, Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan The 3rd “Hi no Kai” Exhibition, Inoue Gallery, Tokyo “Binan-ga” Exhibition, Gallery Tomo, Tokyo, Japan / EAF Monaco, Monaco / Art Taipei, Taiwan Art Miami, USA (’17, ’18) 2017 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’18, ’19) / Group Exhibition, Ginza Art Hall, Tokyo, Japan 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA / Group Exhibition, Sato Sakura Museum, Tokyo, Japan Close-up Group Exhibition, Silkland Gallery, Tokyo, Japan / The 5th Future Exhibition, Galerie Nichido, Tokyo, Japan Tama Art University Research Associate Exhibition, Tokyo, Japan Arte de Noir, Seibu Shibuya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan
Public Collections Takayama City, Gifu, Japan Fukuchiyama City, Kyoto, Japan
72 73 HIDENORI TSUMORI 津守秀憲
Entwined in Glass, the Rivers of Time
“To express the passing of time through the fossilisation of glass, to transform the inorganic into the organic..."
naître by Hidenori Tsumori (2019) Cast glass mixed with clay 74 H48 × W50.5 × D30 cm HIDENORI TSUMORI
About the Artist About the Work
To capture the rivers of time flowing into oceans deep, the Using an ingeniously original technique of firing glass together fragments of memories borne and the tenderness of lives with clay, the myriad landscapes within the young Hidenori lost, to limn the power of nature and its eternal struggle Tsumori's mind are only just emerging onto the fragmented between life and death, the vicissitudes churning between surfaces of his rugged sculptures. As if revealing the eternal Eros and Thanatos. Such thematic elements strike at the struggle between death and rebirth, Tsumori’s work is an open elegiac core of the young Hidenori Tsumori's (1986- ) glass fissure cracked open intentionally through the intensity of his sculptures, encompassing the fragile remains of the day kiln fires and the cooling process that supersedes it. It is that have turned to sombre yet powerful memories in glass through the process of casting which helps the artist to fire and clay. Like the turning of the seasons and the eternal both glass and clay simultaneously, and this original technique rise and fall of the sun and moon, the passing of time is effective in expressing the artist’s wish to capture the sheer embodies the inevitable cycle of life that dictates the power of nature and the movements of the Earth. The firing human existence. Tsumori's elegant sculptures represent itself rips open the casted body, revealing the glittering beauty the remnants of what has passed and what (or perhaps of glass from within the clay and earth. Firing two opposing who?) is left behind in starkly poignant detail. In this young materials together into a single entity is a revolutionary and artist's glass poems, the brave new sounds of an emerging innovative progression of material that allows Tsumori to revolution in glass can be heard. realise the creation of sculptural beauty previously unknown.
1986 Born in Tokyo, Japan 2012 Tama Art University 2014 Toyama City Institute of Glass Art 2017 Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop / Lives and works in Toyama Selected Awards 2011 Selected, 47th Kanagawa Prefecture Art Exhibition 2013 Selected, Echuu Art Festa / Award of Excellence, Northern Japan Newspaper Prize 2014 Award of Excellence, Toyama City Institute of Glass Art Graduation Exhibition Selected, 29th Ishikawa of Contemporary Art Craft Exhibition 2015 Hokkoku Newspaper President's Prize, 71st Kanazawa Art Craft Exhibition Miwa Jury Prize, 6th Sanyo Onoda Contemporary Glass Art Exhibition Selected, Meyer × Shigaraki Award Japan Ceramics Now -Tradition and Innovation Exhibition TV Kanazawa President's Prize, 30th Ishikawa Contemporary Art Craft Exhibition Selected, Japan Glass Art Exhibition / Selected, Takaoka City Art Craft Competition 2016 Silver Prize, The International Exhibition of Glass Kanazawa / Selected, Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop 2017 Prize: Special Recognition Award by Ronald T. Labaco, 3rd Triennale of Kogei in Kanazawa Mayor’s Prize, 73rd Kanazawa Craft Council / Selected, International Ceramics Festival Mino 2018 Silver Prize, Toyama International Glass Exhibition Selected Exhibitions 2012 Art in Life Exhibition, Mitsukoshi Department Store, Tokyo, Japan 2013 Glass × Glass × Glass, Takamura Gyujin Memorial Museum of Art, Toyama, Japan Glass Story, Milestone Art Works, Toyama, Japan / Science Room, Kanka Gallery, Toyama, Japan 2014 7th Glass Educational Institutions Joint Exhibition (GEN Exhibition), Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Japan 29th Ishikawa of Contemporary Craft Art Exhibition, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan / Solo exhibition, Gallery Q, Tokyo, Japan 2015 SOFA Chicago, USA / Space-Time Exhibition, Art For Thought, Tokyo, Japan Utatsuyama of Form Exhibition, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan Art Fair Tokyo, Japan (’16, ’17) Paris, Nobody Knows - Paris do not know anyone, ELEKTROKARDIOGRAMM, Japan Tama Art University 80th Anniversary Exhibition, Japan / The Form of Vestiges – Solo Exhibition, Ishikawa, Japan 2016 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’17) / Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco Art Taipei, Taiwan / Art Miami, USA (’17, ’18) Remains of the Day – Solo Exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2017 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’18, ’19) / TEFAF New York Spring, USA Notojima Glass Collection "New Acquisitions: Forms of Glass", Notojima Glass Art Museum, Ishikawa, Japan 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA / Toyama International Glass Exhibition
Selected Public Collections Toyama City, Japan / Museum of World War II, USA / Notojima Glass Art Museum, Japan / Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Workshop, Japan / Toyama Glass Art Institute, Japan Alternate view
76 77 NAOKI TAKEYAMA 武山直樹
Reverie in Enamels Iridescent
“Art is a way of living, and for me, an affirmation of life.”
Tokiyo (Time Flow) by Naoki Takeyama (2019) Enamelled copper, silver leaf 78 H47.5 × W41.8 × D42.3 cm NAOKI TAKEYAMA
1974 Born in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan 1999 Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School Lives and works in Toyota
Selected Awards 1997 Ataka Prize, Tokyo University of the Arts About the Artist 1999 Prize, National Japan Gold & Silver Works Exhibition Salon de Printemps Prize, Tokyo University of the Arts Naoki Takeyama (1974- ) is a charismatic young artist who wields the ancient technique 33rd International Enamelling Art Exhibition of enamelling metal with an electric modernity, his highly distinctive creations calling to 2000 Japanese Crafts Exhibition mind the avant-garde and asymmetrical designs of world-famous Japanese fashion 34th Japan Enamelling Art Exhibition designers of the 1980’s. Head of his class at the prestigious Tokyo University of the 2001 Toyota Cultural Prize, Aichi Prefecture Arts, Takeyama has been recognised with a flurry of awards since his debut at the age of Gold Prize, I.H.M TALENT, Germany 24, while winning myriad awards since, with recent acquisitions by the V&A in London Vielun Prize, TALENT, Germany in 2008, the Birmingham and Plymouth Museums of Art in 2011, the National Museum 2002 Award, Japan Jewellery Arts Competition of Modern Art, Tokyo in 2012, the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2014, the Yale 2005 Juror's Special Prize, 7th National Ceramics Competition, Mino University Museum of Art and the Grassi Museum in Leipzig, Germany in 2015. 2010 Art Fund Prize, Collect, London (’11) Takeyama’s metalwork is widely seen as a stunning reinterpretation of an age-old art, 2012 Nominated, Okada Mokichi Prize, MOA Museum of Art, Japan (’14) ultimately proposing to metal a wealth of new possibilities. Selected Exhibitions 2003 METALLFORMEN, Germany and Italy 2005 Exempla, Germany 2007 Solo Exhibition, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (’10) 2008 A Japanese Dialogue, Scottish Gallery, UK Collect, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK About the Work 2009 Collect, London, UK (’10, ’11, ’12, ’13,’14, ’15) Quest Gallery, Bath, UK Pushing the boundaries of enamelled metal is Takeyama’s raison d’ȇtre, and his new 2012 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan (’13) objects for TEFAF 2019 embody the many elements that have brought Takeyama critical New Footing: 11 Approaches to Contemporary Craft, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan acclaim. Incredibly, Takeyama first hand-pinches into shape riveting copper bodies that twist themselves into animation, using thin sheets of copper that are often pleated to 2013 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’14, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) absolute perfection. Further, rather than enamelling via the use of wires, the artist uses a Artfully Connected, Embassy of Sweden, Tokyo, Japan small sieve and a bamboo paddle to apply a powder-base enamel glaze onto the body of 2014 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’15, ’16, ’17) the work that crystalizes after firing. After applying the dry glaze, Takeyama fires the Solo Exhibition, Asia Week New York, USA work in a small electric kiln, re-applies enamel, dries, and fires again, with the process Clark Art Institute Opening Exhibition, USA repeated more than 10 times. After cutting out silver and gold leaf shapes, the leaf is Art Miami, USA (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18) meticulously applied by hand onto the body of a work with the utmost precision. An 2015 Japan!, Group Exhibition, Paris, France object is then fired nearly 10 times more in order to fuse the leaf onto the enamelled 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA metal, with each firing warping slightly the form, in which Takeyama must readjust with EAF Monaco, Monaco his hands again and again. As if in a state of constant flux, Takeyama’s enamelled works Art Taipei, Taiwan are an exquisite collaboration between metal and maestro. 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA 2018 Seattle Art Fair, USA
Public Collections Toyota City, Japan / Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan / Victoria and Albert Museum, UK / Manchester City Art Gallery, UK / Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UK / Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery, UK / The National Museum of Modern Art, Japan / The Enamel Arts Foundation, USA / The Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA / The Yale University Art Gallery, USA / Grassi Museum, Leipzig, Germany
80 81 YOSHIRO KIMURA 木村芳郎
Porcelain’s Ocean Blue
“I wish to create works that help the viewer feel eternity in a single glance.”
Vase with Blue Glaze by Yoshiro Kimura (2019) Half-porcelain, cobalt blue glaze 82 H49.5 × W51 × D51 cm YOSHIRO KIMURA
About the Artist 1946 Born in Ehime Prefecture, Japan / Lives and works in Hiroshima
To capture the deep, bold blues of the oceans and skies upon the surfaces of his Selected Awards porcelain objects –such is Hiroshima-based artist Yoshiro Kimura’s (1946- ) reason for 1984 Encouragement Prize, 31st Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition creation. Deeply influenced by the philosophies behind Zen Buddhism and the Way of st 1989 Quasi Grand Prize, 1 Ceramics Biennial ’89 Tea, Kimura had travelled to over 47 countries throughout the world during his years in 1990 Hiroshima Art Grant ’90 Award university, and was first drawn to the beauty of clay upon seeing the enigmatic blue 1993 Prize of Excellence, Chanoyu-no-Zokei Exhibition, Tanabe Museum (’84) pigments of ancient Persian ceramics. Yet with the memory of witnessing first-hand the 2000 Bronze Prize, Exhibition of the Sixth Taiwan Golden Ceramics Awards vivid colours of the Aegean Sea and the Pacific Ocean in Hawaii, Kimura would be 2001 Kaneshige Toyo Prize, Japan Traditional Art Crafts Chugoku Division inspired to recreate such natural beauty in his ceramic works. Kimura has received great 2003 The Sanyo Shimbun Culture Prize acclaim for his signature bold hekiyu (blue glaze), with his works being collected by 2005 62nd Chugoku Cultural Prize museums throughout the world, including the British Museum, the Musée national de Céramique-Sèvres, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and the Museo Art Nouveau y Art Déco in Salamanca, Spain, etc. Selected Exhibitions 1981 Mitsukoshi Department Store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan (’95, ’97, ’87, ’95, ’97, ’99, ’02, ’05, ’08, ’11, ’14, ’17) 1996 KIMURA Yoshiro, Gallery Daiichi Arts, New York, USA 2008 Design Miami / Basel, Galerie Pierre Marie Giraud, Switzerland (’08 -’18) 2009 Kimura Yoshiro, Galerie Pierre Marie Giraud, Belgium About the Work Glass and Ceramics Today, L’Arc en Seine, New York, USA 2010 TEFAF Showcase, Maastricht, Galerie Pierre Marie Giraud, The Netherlands The artist commonly works with vessel forms, yet what Kimura Yoshiro tries to express Path of the elegance between the East and the West the Villa Empain, Belgium is a Zen-like serene spirituality that brims from the gradations of colour that almost melt 2012 Giappone Terra Di Incanti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy from light to dark blues, in particular where his glazes pour and flow from the top of his Collect, London, UK (’15) / Vallauris Ceramics Biennale, France works to their bases. Thrown on the wheel, his works feature a blend of porcelain and 2014 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore (’16, ’17) stoneware clays that help ease the process of throwing large forms. His trademark TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) layered cobalt blue glaze was developed during his twenties, and with age, Kimura has been able to mature and develop the colours to its current, mesmerising depths, created with multiple layers and consecutive firings of great difficulty. One can also discover Public Collections linear motifs etched upon the surfaces of his clay bodies, which further accentuate his blues and which add an extra dimension to his objects. Ultimately, Kimura draws upon National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan / Japan Foundation, Japan /Imperial Household and limns the beauty of the sky and oceans into his beautiful blues, often affectionately Agency, Japan / Jingu Shrine, Japan /Gifu Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Japan /Hiroshima called ‘Kimura Blue’ by aficionados in Japan and the world over. Prefectural Art Museum, Japan /Higashi-Hiroshima Museum of Art, Japan / Hiroshima University, Japan / Okayama Shoka University, Japan /Tanabe Museum of Art, Japan /Shigaraki Cultural Ceramic Park, Japan /Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Japan / Hasegawa Machiko Museum, Japan / Faenza Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Italy / Auckland Institute & Museum, New Zealand / Museo Art Nouveau y Art Déco, Spain / Japan-Spain Cultural Center of Salamanca University, Spain / Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Portugal / Victoria and Albert Museum, UK / Musée national de Céramique, France / Taipei County Yingge Ceramics Museum, Taiwan / Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia / Qatar Visual Art Center, Qatar / World Ceramics Exhibition Foundation, Korea / Auckland Museum, New Zealand / The British Museum, UK
84 85 YASUTAKA BABA 馬場康貴
In Pursuit of the Elemental
“Using the textures of non-organic materials, and with light and shadows as leitmotif, I wish to create works that sublimate and transcend their geometrical structuralism.”
elemental form VII by Yasutaka Baba (2019) Porcelain with glaze 86 H55 × W23 × D23 cm YASUTAKA BABA
About the Artist About the Work
Every so often, an artist emerges who will Entitled ‘elemental form’, Baba’s new series of work is an rejuvenate the traditions of old with a fresh, bold evolution from his early body of work called ‘structural vessel’, zeitgeist that reflects the times in which we live in that whereas his former works were simply adaptations of in, who will push the boundaries of his or her traditional forms often found in utilitarian and functional mode of expression in innovative and new ways works, ‘elemental form’ is devoid of any instance of that help us to both remember, rethink and revisit functionality, and instead, embraces a brave new vision of the beauty found within materials and techniques. abstraction that calls to mind the beauty of ancient architecture, One such artist is Yasutaka Baba (1991- ) of from the wonders of Mayan and Aztec civilizations and the Hasami, Nagasaki Prefecture, who will make his elegance of Persian and Buddhist reliefs, amalgamated with the international debut at TEFAF Maastricht 2018. minimal silhouettes reminiscent of towers and residential complexes of the future. Capturing both light and shadows The eldest son of a family-run pottery in a locale upon their facades, Baba’s aesthetic is intriguing for both its renowned for porcelain production since the sculptural beauty coupled with an immaculate sense of detail 1600’s, Baba’s brave willingness to not simply and craftsmanship, evidenced by the scrupulous intensity of repeat Hasami’s past but to move it forward, to the small building blocks of porcelain that comprise his works. attempt a new aesthetic within porcelain that After drawing a blueprint of his intended object, he first cuts others have yet to tread, has already garnered out stencils that help him create the structural foundations for both respect and great expectations of what lies his sculptures. Then, after cutting out thousands of little ahead. With silhouettes reminiscent of futuristic rectangular porcelain blocks of varying sizes, Baba attaches skyscrapers that buzz with facades of fevered each piece, one by one, upon his damp clay surfaces in a intensity, Baba’s vision of light and shadows random fashion. After drying, the work is fired in an electric entwined in harmony shines brightly amongst a kiln for 1240 degrees Celsius for 15 hours. new and exciting generation of youthful Yufuku artists eager to carve their place in the In pursuit of the elemental essence of porcelain’s natural beauty, international scene. Baba’s ‘elemental forms’ are mesmerising odes to the sheer power and imagination of contemporary Japanese ceramics.
1991 Born in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan 2017 Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center Lives and works in Gifu Prefecture, Japan Selected Awards 2016 Selected, Triennale of Kogei in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan 2017 Bronze Prize, International Ceramics Festival Mino, Gifu Prefecture, Japan Selected Group Exhibitions 2016 The Next Mino Ceramics, Mino Ceramic Art Museum, Gifu Prefecture, Japan (’17) 2017 Kogei Art Fair Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan 2018 Group Exhibition, Keisho-ha V: A New Materialism, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Palm Beach Modern + Contemporary, USA TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’19) Group Exhibition, Porcelain Art From Japan, Galerie Marianne Heller, Heidelberg, Germany Art Miami, USA
Alternate view 88 89 TAKAHIRO YEDE 家出隆浩
When Metal Turns to Tapestry
“To set myself free, I test the limits of myself and metal.”
Ocean Waves by Takahiro Yede (2019) Shakudo (gold/copper), shibuichi (silver/copper), soldering silver 90 H30 × Φ24 cm TAKAHIRO YEDE
About the Artist About the Work
In between innovation and tradition lies the metalwork of Takahiro By manipulating the durable yet adamantine Yede (1962- ), an artist expanding the possibilities of his material qualities of metal, and by adopting the weaving with the stroke of his hammer. Pundits have called his work avant- techniques of other mediums, Yede had devised garde, sculptural, and transcendent of the formative restrictions a way in which strips of differing alloys can be imposed by functionality within traditional metalwork, and the artist woven together as if tapestry. In reality, each is now widely recognised by the Japanese metalworking strip within his metal motifs is carefully establishment for introducing a bold and original method of hammered into place with the utmost formation into the metalworking lexicon, aya-ori-gane (metal eloquence. Moreover, each coloured strip weaving). This technique features various types of copper alloys represents metal alloys of differing qualities, in that are essentially hammered together in patterns inspired by the particular using the famous Japanese alloys of woven bamboo baskets of his homeland and the woven textile shibuichi (silver/copper billon) and shakudo tapestries of native America. Receiving the Grand Prix at the 42nd (gold/copper billon). In essence, each metal Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition in 1995, his works were contains unique properties of varied subsequently acquired by the Tokyo National Museum and Japan’s malleability, and the artist masterfully ‘weaves’ Agency for Cultural Affairs. In 2011, Yede was awarded the Art each strip together to form an individual object. Fund Prize at Collect 2011, and was acquired by the National The artist’s newest metal tapestries for TEFAF Museum Wales. In 2015, Yede further received the top prize yet 2019 are a return to innocence for the artist, in again at the 62nd Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition, with the that his latest motifs are ultimately hammered work subsequently acquired by the Tokyo National Museum of into a unified object that borrows greatly from Modern Art. Further, Yede received the prestigious Medal with the simple beauty of the vessel form, albeit are Purple Ribbon for Artistic Merit in 2016, often seen as the stepping devoid of function. Essentially, Yede has taken stone towards recognition as a future Living National Treasure. metalwork away from its traditional emphasis With an eye for detail and meticulous technique, Yede’s metal art on fully functional forms, and has moved the transcends the ancient traditions of functional metalwork, and art towards greater abstraction and emphasis on rediscovers its beauty for the modern age. form for beauty’s sake.
1962 Born in Fukui Prefecture, Japan / Lives and works in Saitama Selected Awards 1987 27th Traditional Craft Art New Work Exhibition Encouragement Prize, 17th Japanese Metal Art Crafts Exhibition Selected, 34th Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition 1993 Grand Prize, 23rd Japanese Metal Art Crafts Exhibition Director's Prize, Agency for Cultural Affairs Award Art Society Prize, 43rd Saitama Prefecture Art Exhibition 1995 Grand Prize, 42nd Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition 1996 Prize, The Satoh Art Craft Research & Scholarship Foundation Eastern Japan Branch Prize, 36th Traditional Craft Art New Work Exhibition 2007 18th Takashimaya Art Prize, Takashimaya Cultural Foundation, Tokyo 2011 Art Fund Prize, Collect 2011, London 2014 19th MOA Mokichi Okada Award 2015 Grand Prize, 62nd Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition 2016 Medal with Purple Ribbon for Artistic Achievement, Government of Japan Selected Exhibitions 1995 Tobu Department Store, Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan 1999 Mitsukoshi Department Store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan 2001 Okariya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 2003 Higashi-Matsuyama Gallery, Saitama, Japan 2006 Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (’07, ’10) 2008 Collect (Victoria and Albert Museum), London, UK 2009 Collect, London, UK (’10, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’14, ’15) 2012 Art Fair Tokyo, Japan (’13) 2013 TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’14, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) 2014 Art Stage Singapore, Singapore / Clark Art Institute Opening Exhibition, Massachusetts, USA SOFA Chicago, USA 2016 Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco 2017 TEFAF New York Spring, USA
Selected Public Collections Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan / Tokyo National Museum, Japan / National Museum Wales, UK/ Manchester Museum of Art, UK / National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo 92 Close-up 93 MASANORI MAEDA 前田正憲
Painting Between and Beyond the Lines
“Like Tohaku, to paint or not to paint what can or cannot be seen.”
both forgotten by Masanori Maeda (2019) Japanese pigments on aluminum leaf, mounted on canvas 94 H90 × W137 cm MASANORI MAEDA
About the Artist About the Work
The use of black ink to express the seasons and the passing His first painting for the European market, Maeda’s of time is one of traditional Japanese painting’s major painting entitled “both forgotten” for TEFAF 2019 characteristics, and in comparison to acrylic or oil-based was originally inspired by the abstract pine trees of painting materials, it is often said that traditional Japanese the legendary Hasegawa Tohaku. It is within the pigments and inks are not only complex, but are notoriously natural textures of his brushstrokes that reveal hints difficult to use effectively for abstraction. It is this of tension, leaving behind a sparse emptiness that complexity which gives the genre called Nihonga its captures and fills an ominous, looming presence of captivating allure, and an emerging school of contemporary what lies beyond. To paint or not to paint what can Japanese painters are bringing this centuries-old tradition, and cannot be seen – it is this duality of Tohaku previously leaning heavily on figurative motifs, into the 21st that Japanese painter Masanori Maeda has century with bold colours and striking abstractions. endeavored to express, while also being inspired by the simple forms and strokes of the Mono-ha The prestigious Tokyo University of the Arts is universally movement of the 80’s. acknowledged as the most difficult of art universities to be accepted to in Japan, with acceptance rates in the single “both forgotten” refers to the juxtaposition between digits and glittering alumni that essentially comprises the life and death, pain and happiness, and other modern art history of Japan since the Meiji Period. It is from elements that, once forgotten, can lead one to this institution that Nihonga painter Masanori Maeda (1964- ) another state of existence that transcends the 2- graduated as Head of the Class by receiving the Ataka Prize, dimensional, to a realm of serenity and utter calm which often propels artists on a well-oiled path to stardom. and “emptiness.” This quintessentially Asian way of This was not the case for Maeda. With exceptional technique approaching time and space is what the artist tries yet without a clear conception of what he wished to express to capture within the simplicity of this painting and through painting, Maeda soon drifted to obscurity. Yet in the the layering of colours into striated juxtapositions past few years Maeda has reemerged with a focus on upon his aluminum-leaf base. Using the natural abstraction, a style of painting that he had always wished to pigments of Japan such as powdered seashells, paint, inspired by the simplicity and naturalism of the Mono- charcoal ink and lapis that have been used in ha movement. Only recently debuting from Yufuku Gallery Japanese painting for centuries, Maeda’s work brings in 2018, the minimal abstractions of Maeda will be revealed a new sensibility to the traditionalism long inherent to the international stage at TEFAF 2019. within the genre of Nihonga.
1964 Born in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan 1991 Tokyo University of the Arts / Lives and works in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan Selected Awards / Collections 1990 Ataka prize, Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan 1991 Second prize, Chicago international Art Competition, USA / Third prize, Firan grand prize, Tokyo, Japan 1998 Temple collection, Ryumon Sekkutsu folding screen, Tokyo, Japan Solo Exhibitions 1993 Lespoir selected exhibition, Surugadai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1994-2000 Mitsukoshi, Seibu, Sogo, other department store galleries, Japan 1995 Solo exhibition, Nozaki Museum, Tokyo, Japan 2007 Toride Art Project, Ibaraki, Japan (’08) 2009 Unseen, Wada Garou, Tokyo 2011 After Life, Wada Garou, Tokyo 2013 The Other Side : Souldust, Wada Garou, Tokyo, Japan 2014 Gardenscape, Wada Garou, Tokyo, Japan 2015 TAKAMAGAHARA, Shibata Etsuko Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Elegant Simplicity, Amu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (’16) 2016 Waters of March, Shibata Etsuko Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan / Solo exhibition at SEIBU, Ibaraki, Japan Close-up 2018 Both Forgotten, Shibata Etsuko Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan / Both Forgotten#2, Jun Gallery, Tokyo
96 97 KAZUMI NAGANO 永野和美
Romanticism in Contemporary Jewellery
“My works express tranquillity not dynamism. My gold is not the colour of sunshine but of moonlight.”
Necklace by Kazumi Nagano (2019) 18K yellow gold, 14K yellow gold, nylon thread 98 H2 × L32 cm KAZUMI NAGANO
About the Artist About the Work
As if capturing the beauty of Japanese painting into her woven The world of Japanese painting has been condensed jewellery, epitomised by the moon, flowers, and subtleties of snow, it and captured into both sartorial and visual beauty can be said that Kazumi Nagano (1946- ) is one of the leading artists in within the contemporary jewellery of Kazumi Nagano. her field. Contemporary jewellery is one of the most hotly-collected Widely known for the supple silhouettes found in her mediums in applied arts by museums and collectors, and Nagano’s gold and platinum bracelets and brooches, Nagano works, which embody conceptual, structural and creative elegance, have creates her art objects by utilising threads made of been collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum and a multitude of various precious metals and weaving them together as various important private collections in recent years. Striking is the fact if tapestry. Obtaining her raw materials from Kyoto, that Nagano had only delved into the world of jewellery after reaching the materials of gold (in widely different colours) and the age of 50. Instead, she was formally educated as a Nihonga platinum are ingeniously transformed into her warp, (traditional Japanese painting) artist. Yet, as if painting the aesthetics of or longitudinal threads, while her lateral threads, or traditional Japan into her three-dimensional pieces, her seductive weft, are made from nylon in order to add an element silhouettes are emblematic of the romanticism inherently found in the of elasticity, texture and substance. By weaving the two-dimensional world of Japanese painting, of subtle flowers blowing warp and weft into her loom, radiant sheets of gold in the wind, with reverence to the warmth of not the sun but of and platinum are completed. Then, Nagano ultimately moonlight. Serenity, not dynamism, are the hallmarks of Nagano’s uses her hands to tie, knot, and braid her works into luscious forms made from materials such as gold and platinum threads, eloquent silhouettes that are not only beautiful when combined with the elasticity of the contemporary material that is nylon. worn, but are also elegantly displayed as installation.
1946 Born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan / Lives and works in Tokyo Selected Awards 2002 Fine Works Prize, Japan Jewellery Art Competition, Tokyo Selected Exhibitions 2002 WINTER JOURNEY Christmas Exhibition, Galerie Slavik, Vienna, Austria (’04) 2005 Schmuck, Munich, Germany (’08, ’11, ’12, ’13, ’15, ’16) SOFA New York, Mobilia Gallery, USA (’06, ’07, ’08, ’09) / SOFA Chicago, Mobilia Gallery, USA (’06) 2007 Collectables, Alternatives Gallery, Rome, Italy 2008 Magie Der Schmuckkunst, Galarie Slavik, Vienna, Austria Collect, Victoria & Albert Museum, Alternative Gallery (’13, ’14, ’15) / Galerie Pilartz, Cologne, Germany Exhibition of Contemporary Jewellery Yufuku Collection, Yufuku Gallery, Tokyo, Japan (’10, ’11, ’14) 2009 Cut the edge, Weave the Line Textile Arts, Mobilia Gallery, USA Collect, London, UK - Alternatives Gallery, Rome, Italy (’10, ’11) - Yufuku Gallery, Japan (’13, ’14, ’15) Paper jewellery exhibition, Triennale Design Museum, Milan, Italy Progetto Pezzi Di Luna – Music and Contemporary Jewelly, Padova, Italy Zwischen den Jahren, Galerie Pilartz, Cologne, Germany / Heirlooms of the Future, Mobilia Gallery, USA 2010 20 Jahre Galerie Slavik, Galerie Slavik, Vienna, Austria 2011 Objects of Status, Power and Adornment, Mobilia Gallery, USA Duo-Exhibition, Alternatives Gallery, Rome, Italy 2012 One, Mixed Media Foundation, Padova, Italy Contemporary visions of the necklace art for the ear the art of the ring, Mobilia Gallery, USA LOOT 2012, M.A.D. Gallery, New York, USA The Tree –A Material for Arts and Crafts, Galerie Handwerk, Munich, Germany Unexpected Pleasures, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia 2013 Duo-exhibition, Kayo Saitou, Kazumi Nagano, Galerie Orfeo, Luxembourg Galerie Sofie Lachaert, Belgium / TEFAF Maastricht, The Netherlands (’14, ’15, ’16, ’17, ’18, ’19) 2014 Dubai Design Days, Galerie sofie lachaert, Belgium / Petit est beau. Paper Jewelry, Manggha Muzeum, Poland 2015 Schmuck 1970-2015, Sammlung Bollmann, Vienna, Austria Not Too Precious, Ruthin, UK / Galerie Noel, Canada 2016 Not Too Precious, National Craft Gallery, Ireland / MONO Japan, Amsterdam Alternate view Skin: the jewellery surface, Museo del Gioiello Museum, Italy 25 JAHRE GALERIE SLAVIK, Galarie Slavik Vienna, Austria / Solo-exhibition, MANO Gallery, Taiwan Spring Masters New York, USA / EAF Monaco, Monaco 2017 TEFAF New York, USA / Group-exhibition, The Most Secret Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark SOFA Chicago, Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, Canada Jewelry of Ideas, Cooper Hewit Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, USA TWO × TWO for the Foundation of AIDS Research and the Dallas Museum of Art, USA (Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, Canada) Korean Craft and Design Fair, South Korea (Galerie Noel Guyomarc’h, Canada) 2018 Pin Point Exhibition, Mobilia Gallery, USA / Precious Thoughts, Confraternity of St. Rocco, Padova, Italy
Selected Public Collections Victoria and Albert Museum, UK / Alice & Louis Koch Collection of Rings, Switzerland / Olnick Spanu Collection, USA / Bollmann Collection, Austria / Katrin Basiner Collection, Germany / The Cominelli Foundation, Italy / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Susan Grant Lewin Collection, USA / Pureun Culture Foundation, Seoul, South Korea
100 101 Joseph Walsh ジョセフ ウォルシュ
Serenity’s Silhouettes
"I believe we can enhance the quality of our lives by surrounding ourselves with objects that possess values beyond their function or aesthetic.”
RINN Enignum Shelf by Joseph Walsh (2018) Ash, bleached & white oil finish H270 × W220 × D51 cm
Dommus Chair by Joseph Walsh (2018) RINN Enignum Dining Table Ash, bleached & white oil finish by Joseph Walsh (2018) H77 × W52 × D56 cm Ash, burr olive ash, breached & white oil finish H74 × W331.7 × D120 cm Joseph Walsh
About the Artist
One can hear the flowing of water and the rustling of wind in the sleek silhouettes of Joseph Walsh (1979- ), an artist who captures not only the natural beauty of Ireland in his epic works made from wood or stone, but the movements that flow within. Walsh’s works in furniture are as if dreams have melted into place, finding form in shapes unseen and beyond imagination, his curves and lines at once seductive, radiant, yet simultaneously serene. However, it is not simply imagination that Walsh transcends, but the very conception of functionality within form. Where does function end and free form begin? Can revolutionary form and the comforts in functionality coalesce in a state of peaceful coexistence? The answer is an unequivocal yes. Joseph’s curvatures are the symbiosis of unforeseen vision, the highest echelons of innovative craftsmanship coupled with true knowledge of his material, and the sheer determination to make such visions into reality.
Yufuku Gallery proudly presents the debut of Joseph Walsh in Maastricht at TEFAF Maastricht 2019. With works in the collections of leading museums such as the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Art and Design, and the National Museum of Ireland, Walsh has defined the very limits of his material, and have put to the test the notion that the categories of furniture and sculpture are separate and distinct entities. Instead, his works blur the lines between furniture and fine art, essentially making testament to the new notion that such definitions are essentially meaningless in the case of masterworks that can not only pierce the heart, but stand the tests of time as monuments of great beauty.
About the Work
In the words of the artist; “The Rinn series represent a certain point, a moment in time along the way. It is as much about the beginning of the journey as it is about the end. It speaks of an evolution in my work, from the past through to an expression of the now. Most importantly, it is also a dialogue with Japan and with the Yufuku Gallery, and how the experience of having my work in Japan will inform and influence the future.” Made by cutting ash wood into thinly striated layers and bending them into his imagined forms through the sheer weights of gravity, Walsh’s works are luscious odes to the beauty of material and the visceral poetry that simple silhouettes can evoke in the coldest of hearts. A joy to use and nurture for generations to come, the work of Joseph reminds us of the importance of material, craftsmanship and beauty within contemporary art.
1979 Born in Cork, Ireland 1999 Founds studio in Cork, Ireland Selected Exhibitions 2008 Realisations, American Irish Historical Society, New York, USA 2011 The Dairy, Nilufar Gallery, London, UK / Black & White, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, Ireland ENIGNUM and other stories, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, Ireland Design Miami / Basel, Nilufar Gallery, Basel, Switzerland 2012 Wallpaper Handmade at Palazzo Brioni, Milan, Italy / Design Days Dubai, Nilufar Gallery, Dubai, UAE 2013 Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art and Craft, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA 2014 Cheongju International Craft Biennale, South Korea Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art and Craft,Museum of Art and Design, New York, USA Solo Exhibition, The Roche Court Educational Trust, New Art Centre, UK Collective 2, Skylight at Moynihan Station, New York, USA 2015 Make Yourself Comfortable at Chatsworth, UK 2016 Masterworks, Long House Reserve, East Hampton, New York, USA Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK 2017 Reveal, The American Irish Historical Society (AIHS), New York, USA Joseph Walsh Japan Debut at Tsubaki Grand Shrine, Mie, Japan 2018 RINN – an exhibition by Joseph Walsh, Sogetsu Hall, Tokyo, Japan Design Miami, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, Miami Beach, USA
Public Collections Centre de Pompidou, France / Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, USA / The Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth House, UK / Embassy of Japan, Ireland / John H. Bryan Collection, USA / National Museum of Ireland - Decorative Arts & History Collection, Ireland / Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, USA / Museum of Arts and Design, USA / Tsubaki Grand Shrine, Japan
Alternate view (RINN Enignum Shelf)
104 105 The European Fine Art Fair
TEFAF is widely considered to be the ‘crown jewel’ of international art fairs, held in Maastricht from the 16th to the 24th of March, 2019 at MECC Maastricht, attracting leading museum curators and collectors the world o er. We sincerely look forward to welcoming you to our stand #237. For more information on TEFAF, please isit the official TEFAF website, or Yufuku’s website, per below.
TEFAF Maastricht 2019: www.tefaf.com Yufuku Gallery: www.yufuku.net
Yufuku Gallery
Annecy Aoyama 1st Floor Tel : +(81) 3-5411-2900 2-6-12 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku Fax : +(81) 3-5411-2901 Tokyo, Japan 107-0062 www.yufuku.net
Please direct all enquiries to: Kumiko Sunahara International Director kumiko yufuku.net
Gaienmae
Number 4a Exit Aoyama ▲
▲ shibuya Icchome St. Akasaka 246 Gaienmae St. Unimat Daiichi Honda Aoyama Bldg. Hoki Bldg Chojian Bldg Twin Tower Soba Aoyama Icchome Number 5Exit
107 Published by Yufuku Gallery Written by Wahei Aoyama Edited by Maho Fujino, Kumiko Sunahara, Yoriko Takahashi and Ami Nakano Designed by Yufuku Gallery All photography by Tsunehiro Kobayashi, except Niyoko Ikuta by Junichi Kanzaki, Eiko Kishi by Yo Nagata, Satoru Ozaki by Yuichiro Tamura, Kazumi Nagano by Ryota Sekiguchi, and Joseph Walsh by Andrew Bradley
2019 by East Meets West, Inc. Printed in Japan. All rights reser ed.