Imura Art Gallery is pleased to present Cube—Masaomi Raku, an exhibition of sculpture by Kyoto-based sculptor Masaomi Raku. This is his first solo exhibition at the gallery since 2017, seven years ago.

　Masaomi Raku was born in Kyoto as the second son of the fifteenth head of the Raku family of potters, which has been creating tea ceremony bowls for more than 450 years. After receiving an MFA from Tokyo Zokei University, he set up independently and began a career as a sculptor, working in stone. Rather than dominating nature, his practice focuses on creating works that are in harmony with the form of the stone, guided by his aim “to find expression in stone, and to respect nature in the act of making.” The Transmigration series of his twenties related to the law of life, and the Stone box series of his thirties used the motif of a bird’s beak to express transmigration carried by a bird. As he approached his forties in 2023, the artist launched a new series, Sekki, which continues the theme of transmigration while extending the scope of his practice by introducing the new technique of firing his stone sculptures like pottery. Although they take different forms, each of these series remains based on the concept of the cycle of life, and on an approach that focuses on respect for nature.

　This exhibition presents about ten new works, mainly Cube or Crack sculptures in Jimbu microgranite, a welded tuff. The Cube sculptures adopt the physical form of a cube, created by first carving a cube from the stone, and then firing it like pottery, which produces distortions and cracks, transforming the cube into a new shape. In addition to expressing the evolution of the form, these works express traces of the past. The Crack sculptures are similar to Cube in that firing stone, symbolically a permanent material, induces cracks, enabling the works to express impermanence. Raku explains this impermanence by saying that, “under the laws of nature, which involve constant and unceasing change, nothing is permanent. The materials that we see today are all undergoing evolution and change, processes that lead to the future. Forms of matter that temporarily present a stable form—such as light, air, water, and even stone—are actually in the process of a repetitive change that will never come to an end. Because of that nature, existence and life tell of impermanence, transmigration, and the cycle of life.” Encountering each work in the exhibition space, we may be able to sense the feelings that the artist has imparted to these works engendered from natural objects that present characteristic new faces brought out by being carved from stone, fired, and sometimes polished.

【Concurrent exhibitions】
Firing stone/Firing clay—Masaomi Raku/Jikinyu Raku
Period: January 2–29, 2024 (Open daily)
Hours: 10:00–19:30 (last entry 19:00)
Venue: Museum EKi KYOTO (Kyoto Station Building, accessible from the 7th floor of JR Kyoto Isetan)
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Masaomi Raku: The Bowl of Light—sculpture exhibition
Period: January 6–April 7, 2024
Hours: 10:00–18:00 (last entry 17:30)
Closed: Mondays (or the next business day when Monday is a public holiday)
Venue: ZENBI (Kagizen Art Museum)
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