Japan

Toshio Iezumi studied glass-working for two years in the Tokyo Glass Art Institute, where he began to make sculptures out of sheet glass. This work culminated in the development of two techniques, the first laminating sheets of glass with adhesive into a block as large as one wants. The second, direct carving of glass using stone carving technique merged with traditional glass-processing. These techniques make it possible to produce glass sculptures of a size and form not previously possible. He combines abstract form with transmitted and reflected light. Iezumi is currently a Professor at the Kurashiki University of the Arts in Japan and has been exhibiting internationally for over 20 years in both solo and group exhibitions. With works in a number of esteemed public collections including Corning Museum of Glass, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California; and National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, he has completed private and public commissions all over Japan and Australia. Iezumi has been exhibiting regularly in Sculpture by the Sea since 2007 and exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea, Aarhus, Denmark in 2009 and 2011.

Having travelled and worked extensively in Europe and the US, Ko Yamazaki has explored a myriad of techniques and worked alongside many inspiring artists. His travels saw Yamazaki expand his practice and explore the relationship between western and eastern art. His inspiration grew heavily from the unintended 'artworks' in the everyday; those moments when an object serendipitously fits into a place, forming a landscape unto itself. “I think of my sculptures as unfinished inventories; fragments of my mind, representing portions of my internal self. In reflecting and adopting parts of my personality the marble develops a unique character, and takes on its own life, becoming a three-dimensional reflection of an idea. My sculptures are created through an organic osmosis and not spatially designed for a specific purpose. Carving stone and feeling its contours is a true extension of the mind's eye. Each sculpture is an evolution of emotion and ideas; the exploration process is cathartic. Dreams are the foundation for the relationship I develop with the chosen piece of marble. When I create a work, my hands guide me. I find the palm picks up more than the eye, so I urge people to touch my work and engage with each piece”. Ko Yamasaki

Sculptor and painter Naidee Changmoh says his art is inspired by children and a series of Japanese cartoons of a young monk which he used to watch on TV when he was very young. “When I was drawing at university, I would think about this cartoon figure and create my own character, who had quite a large head. Always, part of my work has this (Buddhist) religious philosophy behind it”. Naidee Changmoh. Though he studied painting as an art student, for the past 20 years his main interest has been in ceramics. Casting in bronze has been a natural progression. In the past few years, he has been invited to attend conferences and hold workshops in China, Singapore and Taiwan, and is invited to Italy and the US later this year, and India and England in 2015. Last year he came to Australia by invitation to give a demonstration at the tri-annual national ceramic event held in central western NSW. Changmoh has also been commissioned by a patron to create a number of concrete sculptures for a Buddhist temple in Paris.

Kaoru Matsumoto studied at the Kyoto International Art Institute in Japan between 1973 and 1977. After his studies, he received some educational support from the Kyoto Prefecture and traveled Central America and South America from 1977 to 1978. He traveled through numerous countries, absorbing their nature and culture. After returning home, Matsumoto started to make kinetic sculptures. For Matsumoto, the same time came repeatedly every day, but it was never the same as the day before. Surely, nature and the person must evolve? He decided to try to express these thoughts through sculpture. Matsumoto attempts to represent wind through the medium of a sculpture, wishing to express the information the wind brings with it. His work contains a message from nature.

Keizo Ushio is one of Japan’s most highly regarded sculptors. He graduated from the Kyoto City University of Arts and upon receiving First Prize at the Henry Moore Exhibition at the Hakone Open Air Museum in 1979 began developing his signature style of sculpting. His ingenious carving technique is influenced by the mathematics of the mobius strip, typically known as a one-sided, one-edged surface, which is notoriously difficult to create with materials of great weight and density. This reversed loop seems incompatible with the hardness of the stone but it symbolizes and skillfully expresses the unity of a contrary nature and lies at the core of what makes his work so interesting. The artist has exhibited at every Sculpture by the Sea exhibition since 1999 in Sydney and Perth, and Aarhus in Denmark in 2009 and 2011 and is represented in public and private collections in Japan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Israel, India, New Zealand, the USA and Australia.

Hidemi Tokutake is a Japanese-born ceramic artist who started her ceramic journey at Seto Ceramic School in Japan. She later travelled to Australia where she studies for five years and obtained a Masters of ceramic at the National Art School in Spring 2014. The delicate and brittle nature of Tokutake’s ceramic draws both the fragility and strength of the Australian landscapes. The work aims to embody the birth of nature, the wonder of seeds emerging from pods, the continuum of life, which can be likened to a woman giving birth to a child. These sculptures balance visual resemblance to a woman’s reproductive organs, however they also aim to bring to light the beauty, curiosity and unity between both plant and human.

Keizo Ushio is one of Japan’s most highly regarded sculptors. He graduated from the Kyoto City University of Arts and upon receiving First Prize at the Henry Moore Exhibition at the Hakone Open Air Museum in 1979 began developing his signature style of sculpting. His ingenious carving technique is influenced by the mathematics of the mobius strip, typically known as a one-sided, one-edged surface, which is notoriously difficult to create with materials of great weight and density. This reversed loop seems incompatible with the hardness of the stone but it symbolizes and skillfully expresses the unity of a contrary nature and lies at the core of what makes his work so interesting. The artist has exhibited at every Sculpture by the Sea exhibition since 1999 in Sydney and Perth, and Aarhus in Denmark in 2009 and 2011 and is represented in public and private collections in Japan, Spain, Iceland, Norway, Germany, Denmark, Israel, India, New Zealand, the USA and Australia.