Hybridizing – Yuki Nara in Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama

Yuki Nara’s solo exhibition “Hybridizing” is being held at Akio Nagasawa Gallery Aoyama. He is now a world-famous ceramic artist and architect.

When you step into the gallery, the first thing you see is a familiar shape that looks like a Jomon-style earthenware. As you come closer to the works and appreciate them, a series of small discoveries and surprises will occur on your mind, such as the fact that they have delicate and unique porcelain skin and are based on precise CAD. Also, you will realize, “This is something I’ve never seen before!” By then, you will be completely enthralled by the universe of his works. This is a wonderful solo exhibition that generates such a mystic charm.

You may be satisfied with the appeal only from the photos. Still, many aspects can only be appreciated by actually seeing the skin and texture of porcelain.

Hybridizing various inspirations and cultural backgrounds

Yuki Nara was born in 1989 into the family of the originators of Ohi-yaki pottery (Kanazawa, Ishikawa) with more than 350 years of history and tradition. He stayed away from pottery until his teens, and when he was unsure of his future career path, he took the advice of his father Chozaemon Ohi XI and studied architecture at the Tokyo University of the Arts.

However, during his time at the university, he developed an interest in ceramics. Eventually, he took a leave to enroll at the Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center to study pottery. In 2017, he completed his studies at the Department of Architecture, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, with the highest degree.

His dual talents as a ceramic artist and an architect have already attracted attention not only in Japan but also in the world.

His new collection: a unique world created by beautiful geometric patterns

More than 20 points have been introduced in Hybridizing, including his maiden work “Bone Flower” series, which is the highly acclaimed, and added new series “Ice Wall”.

He says that the “Ice Wall” series was inspired by the magnificent snow sceneries of Kanazawa, where Nara himself spent his childhood. If you stand in front of the work without your heart, you will be drawn to the world view created by the beautiful geometric patterns that shine delicately with the glaze draped over it. There you can feel a strange oscillation that seems to be hovering between two- and three-dimensional spaces and between lines and planes.

Works that struggles with the infinite “spaces”

We often hear architects say that in Western architecture, the inside and the outside are separated from each other by solid walls. However, the line between the inside and the outside in Japanese architecture is unclear, as indicated by the Tatami mat to the Engawa (porch) and Shoji screens to the garden. Also, there is a kind of buffer “space” between the inside and the outside. This is an example in architecture, but Nara also struggles with the infinite “spaces” between ceramics art and architecture, digital and analog, inside and outside, chaos and order, etc. And this is the source of a new world that only Yuki Nara can create.

We may say that it is difficult to convey the value of a work created from the struggle in an infinite “spaces” from photographs on this website. Thus, you are invited to visit and feel it here.