Artist
Nara Yuki
Frozen Flowers. 2022. Installation view from Collection 1: Vessels, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2022. Photo: Kioku Keizo. Courtesy of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
Frozen Flowers. 2022. Installation view from Collection 1: Vessels, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2022. Photo: Kioku Keizo. Courtesy of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.
Bone Flower_Yayoi. 2021. Semiporcelain. Collection of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. H. 33, W. 18, D. 18 cm. Photo: Shugo Hayashi.
Nara is a ceramicist and an architect. He incorporates architectural approaches into his ceramics, producing three-dimensional objects from flat, two-dimensional forms. He begins each work by creating sheets of colorless, white porcelain, which he assembles into three-dimensional structures. In recent years, he has collaborated with other creators from various fields to expand his range of expression. For this exhibition, Nara worked with Ohara Hiroki, the fifth headmaster of the Ohara school of ikebana, combining a new work of white porcelain with a flower arrangement by Ohara.
Profile
Nara Yuki
Born in 1989 in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. Nara graduated from the Tokyo University of the Arts Department of Architecture in 2013 and the Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center in 2016. In 2017, he graduated first in his class from the Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Architecture. In 2021, he founded the architecture and design office Earthen (styled in all capitals). Based in Kanazawa and Tokyo, Nara’s creative work spans the fields of ceramics and architecture.
Collaborating
Ohara Hiroki
Ohara Hiroki was born in Kobe in 1988. In 1995 (Heisei 7), he succeeded the fifth headmaster at the age of six, and focused on the spread of Japanese traditional culture Ikebana and both domestic and international activities as an artist. Currently, he is appointed Director of Ohara-ryu Research Institute, Vice-President of Japan Ikebana Arts Association, Vice-President of Hyogo Prefecture Ikebana Association, Visiting Professor of Taisho University, Principal of Ohara-ryu Beginner's School.