Kawashima Shigeo in bamboo forest

Kawashima Shigeo

BIO/CV

b. 1958 Tokyo, Japan

Education
  • 1979

    Graduated from Oita Prefectural Beppu Advanced Technology Academy


Exhibitions & Accolades
  • 1981

    Admitted to Beppu City Art Exhibition (thereafter 3 times)

  • 1982

    Winner of Beppu City Art Exhibition Prize (thereafter 2 times)
    Admitted to Oita Prefecture Art Exhibition
    Admitted for first time to Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition, Western Division (thereafter admitted 2 times)

  • 1983

    Winner of Oita Prefecture Art Exhibition Award
    Winner of Western Japan Traditional Craft Arts Exhibition Award

  • 1987

    Solo Exhibition, Gallery Momiyama, Kanagawa

  • 1989

    Asahi Modern Craft Exhibition in Osaka and Tokyo

  • 1990

    Odawara Open-air Maquette Exhibition in Kanagawa

  • 1992

    Solo Exhibition, Plaza Gallery, Tokyo (also in 1994)

  • 1993

    Winner of Funabashi Environmental Sculptures Prize (thereafter 2 times)
    Solo Exhibition, Gallery Space You, Kanagawa (thereafter 2 times)
    International Tannan Art Festival I Fukui (also in 1996)
    Shinobazu Object Festival, Tokyo (thereafter 2 times)
    Humor Art and Environmental Sculpture Exhibition, Chiba (thereafter 2 times)

  • 1994

    Winner of Shinobazu Object Festival Prize
    Park and Sculpture-Origin of Public Space I, Kanagawa (thereafter 3 times)
    Sculpture in Living Space, Kanagawa
    B. P. F. ART ’94, Chiba

  • 1995

    Mitsukoshi House Pavilion-Bamboo Arts, Tokyo
    Fieldwork in Fujino, Kanagawa (thereafter 2 times)

  • 1997

    Park and Sculpture-Report, Gallery Space You, Kanagawa
    Chiba Art Flash, Chiba

  • 1998

    Fieldwork and Sculpture, Puurs, Belgium
    Fujino International Art Symposium Summer Art Festival, Kanagawa
    Art on the Street, Kanagawa

  • 1999

    Solo Exhibition NAN-O-TUBE, Tokyo International Forum

  • 2000

    Bamboo Fantasies, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

  • 2002

    The Next Generation, University of Arkansas, Little Rock
    Commissioned to do site specific sculpture, Bridge Over Tomorrow, Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, CA

  • 2003

    Outdoor Installation on Robert & Karen Duncan property, Lincoln, NE

  • 2006

    On Site / Artists’ Projects, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, VA
    Hin: The Quiet Beauty of Japanese Art, Grinnell College, IA and Chicago Cultural Center, IL
    Power & Delicacy: Master Works of Japanese Bamboo Art, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

  • 2008

    Outdoor Installation at the Kennedy Center,Washington, DC
    Created an indoor sculpture at the Chihuly Center, Franklin Park, OH
    New Bamboo:Contemporary Japanese Masters, Japan Society, New York, NY

  • 2009

    Many Shapes of Bamboo III, Oita Prefectural Art Museum, Oita

  • 2013

    Oita’s Art Movement, in partnership with the Oita Prefectural Government, a museum quality show, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

  • 2014

    Group show, Japanese American Cultural Community Center, Los Angeles, CA

  • 2017

    Masterpieces of Japanese Bamboo Art, TAI Modern at Joan B Mirviss LTD, New York, NY


Museum Collections

  • Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, CA
    Oita Prefectural Museum
    Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA


ARTIST STATEMENT

Since the day I was born, as my life being the expression of what I do and how I live each day, every aspect of my experience are intertwined into my work. In other words, to bundle up all of what I feel each day, and then trim it down repeatedly into its essence.  Accumulation of this remaining is what I call “creation,” and what I create adds to my experience.

When I was seventeen years old, I wanted to live in a remote place like a mountain hermit.  I thought of becoming an artist or craftsman to make this life style possible.  I went through trial and error, and I came across bamboo at the age of twenty.  I really liked the simplicity of bamboo, and I thought I was getting closer to the kind of life I wanted.

Then the big change come to my life at the age of twenty-seven. Working with bamboo annoyed me, but I realized that the bamboo and I were inseparable. I could not run away from it as bamboo had already become part of me. I really don’t know when, where, and what formed the way I create my work of today. One thing that I remember clearly is that I wanted to run away from the process of preparing and weaving bamboo that requires meticulous attention and endurance.

It is just an inseparable relationship between the bamboo and me. That is only I can think of why I did not give up working with bamboo.  I don’t know how to manage it, but I have ended up tying bamboo rather than weaving it.

It is strange, but I [my hands] get this urge to weave bamboo lately. I suppress this urge for now and enjoy something I get for the return.

  • Masterpieces of Japanese Bamboo Art

  • The Next Generation

  • Oita’s Art Movement

  • Oita’s Art Moment