Hirokazu Ichii is a sculptor who creates wood-carved pieces depicting characters with tranquil expressions. Each sculpture he creates is supple and embellished with distinctive clothing and accessories that inspire visions of a gentle narrative world.
With this exhibition, the artist has taken on a new challenge by exhibiting his sculptures alongside nihonga paintings. This combination of flat and three-dimensional works further expands his artworks’ image and evokes an “inner portrait” of human beings and their inability to live apart from nature’s blessings. The warmth possessed by wood, and the soft tones of the natural mineral pigments applied to both the painting and sculpture, grant the artworks a gentle but firm presence and the surrounding space brims with the raw power of natural life.
As each piece expresses the inspiration it received from mountain landscapes, it reminds us that we owe our lives to and are always a part of the natural world. The results will surely envelop viewer’s hearts in a kind embrace and encourage them to become newly aware of their own connections to nature.
| Statue of Fondness for Rokuzan MountainsⅡ 2023 h55×w48.5×d38 cm Natural mineral pigment, ink on cypress wood
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| Fondness for Rokuzan MountainsⅡ 2023 h60×w60 cm Natural mineral pigment, ink on paper |
As I approach the mountain, its slopes are once again curtained by a thin mist.
Ungraspable nature, the voices of birds…
Atop the mountain, I crossed paths with a deer and our eyes met.
The hearts of men and the breadth of nature… small hearts within nature…
Perhaps it is because so much cannot be grasped or understood that I express those feelings as form.
16/06/2023(fri) - 30/06/2023(fri)
11:00-17:00※ Open by appointment only on Sat, June 24, 2023
※ Closed on Sundays and holidays.
Artist in gallery:
June 17, 2023
Please contact us from here for appointment and any further enquiries.