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Watanabe Chiaki
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Watanabe Chiaki

Watanabe Chiaki is the first of a promising group of bamboo art students to make
the creative leap from student to artist. After working as a social worker for 14 years,
Watanabe quit his job and moved to Sado Island to attend the newly created school for
bamboo art under artists Honma Hideaki and Kawano Shoko. Within a few years of
training, Watanabe distinguished himself as an important up-and-coming artist.

Working under the mentorship of Honma Hideaki, Watanabe’s foundation in bamboo as a vehicle for sculptural expression greatly expanded. Like his teacher, he takes inspiration from forms in the natural environment such as sea life, wind, and tide. Hideaki’s influence is present in Watanabe’s artwork, but Watanabe’s compositional thinking differs from his teacher’s. His creative play of translucency and intersecting forms are Watanabe’s unique additions to the visual dialog in bamboo art.

Watanabe brings a fresh energy to his sculptures. Adding his unique voice to the
artistic conversation of Japanese bamboo art, he is part of a younger generation taking
on a challenging medium and creating amazing artwork.
? Everett Cole, July 2012

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description

Watanabe Chiaki is the first of a promising group of bamboo art students to make
the creative leap from student to artist. After working as a social worker for 14 years,
Watanabe quit his job and moved to Sado Island to attend the newly created school for
bamboo art under artists Honma Hideaki and Kawano Shoko. Within a few years of
training, Watanabe distinguished himself as an important up-and-coming artist.

Working under the mentorship of Honma Hideaki, Watanabe’s foundation in bamboo as a vehicle for sculptural expression greatly expanded. Like his teacher, he takes inspiration from forms in the natural environment such as sea life, wind, and tide. Hideaki’s influence is present in Watanabe’s artwork, but Watanabe’s compositional thinking differs from his teacher’s. His creative play of translucency and intersecting forms are Watanabe’s unique additions to the visual dialog in bamboo art.

Watanabe brings a fresh energy to his sculptures. Adding his unique voice to the
artistic conversation of Japanese bamboo art, he is part of a younger generation taking
on a challenging medium and creating amazing artwork.
? Everett Cole, July 2012

BIO/CV

b. 1969, Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture

Education
  • 1993

    Graduated from Tohoku Fukushi University in Social Welfare, worked for the Red Cross Hospital for 14 years

  • 2007

    Resigned his job to become a bamboo artist

  • 2010

    Graduated from SADO School and became a student of Honma Hideaki’s


Exhibitions & Accolades
  • 2009

    Admitted to the 64th Niigata Prefectural Art Exhibition on his first attempt
    Admitted to the 6th Sado City Art Exhibition for the first time

  • 2010

    Admitted to the 65th Niigata Prefectural Art Exhibition

  • 2011

    Winner of the Governor’s Prize at the 48th Modern Craft Art Exhibition, Niigata
    Winner of the Encouragement Prize at the 7th Sado City Art Exhibition
    Winner of the Best Young Artist Prize at the 15th National Bamboo Art Competition

  • 2012

    Admitted to the 50th Japan Modern Craft Art Exhibition for the first time
    Admitted to the 66th Niigata Prefectural Art Exhibition
    Admitted to the 8th Sado City Art Exhibition
    Winner of the Encouragement Prize at the 49th Modern Craft Art Exhibition, Niigata
    Winner of the Governor of Tochigi Prize at the 16th National Bamboo Art Competition
    SADO Contemporary show with Honma Hideaki, TAI Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

  • 2020

    Winter Shadows, TAI Modern, Santa Fe, NM


Select Collections
  • David Woods Kemper Memorial Foundation, Kansas City, MO

    Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA


ARTIST STATEMENT
  • Beneath the surface: Watanabe Chiaki’s “Calm Mind”

    View original article Calm Mind (2016), madake bamboo, rattan   As rough and choppy as the waves might be on the surface of the ocean, when you sink into its depths, there’s a stillness. The human mind, when thoughts, concerns, worries, and fears, are stripped away, likewise becomes still. That was the sentiment that Japanese bamboo […]
  • FIRED EARTH, WOVEN BAMBOO

    Original article at Asian Art Newspaper.com THE MUSEUM OF Fine Arts in Boston has recently received a transformative gift of over 90 pieces spanning the late 20th and 21st centuries, given by collectors Stanley and Mary Ann Snider from their Japanese art. This continues the tradition of collectors of Japanese art making donations to the […]
  • PRESS RELEASE: TAI Modern at Art Miami 2017

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: TAI Modern at Art Miami 2017 December 5th– 10th, 2017 One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL Contact: Arianna Borgeson Arianna@taimodern.com (505) 984-1387 TAI Modern is pleased to announce its participation in the 28thyear of Art Miami. This year’s fair will be held at a new location at One Herald Plaza, on 14thStreet between […]

Beneath the surface: Watanabe Chiaki’s “Calm Mind”

View original article

Objet d'Art: Watanabe Chiaki's Calm Mind

Calm Mind (2016), madake bamboo, rattan

 

As rough and choppy as the waves might be on the surface of the ocean, when you sink into its depths, there’s a stillness. The human mind, when thoughts, concerns, worries, and fears, are stripped away, likewise becomes still. That was the sentiment that Japanese bamboo artist Watanabe Chiaki sought to convey when he made Calm Mind (2016).

“Calm Mind is like a brush painting in three- dimensional form, a single stroke depiction of being deep down in the ocean and having a calmness in your heart and a positive mind, regardless of the violent storms that may be passing by,” he says.

The sinuous sculpture, on view at TAI Modern (1601 Paseo de Peralta, 505-984-1387, taimodern.com), is 21 by 19.5 inches. It gleams blue and black as its long, serpentine form wraps twice around itself. It is open at one end, inviting you into its labyrinthine folds. The sculpture is made of 2-millimeter-wide concentric bands of rattan and madake bamboo, which is prized by Japanese bamboo artists for its versatility. The outside of the rings are dyed black; the inside is blue. Walking around the sculpture, one gets a sense of its subtle tonality as it shifts from one color to the other, as though it’s reflecting the colors around it.

“People often say it looks like a Slinky,” gallery director Margo Thoma says of the piece. “We don’t usually let people touch it too much, but it kind of wobbles like one, too, if you poke it.”

Thoma explains that madake bamboo is most often used in basketry because it has enough strength and rigidity that it can hold a form and support its own weight. “If you cut it finely — and the nature of the fibers allow you to cut it very finely — it can also become very flexible,” she says. “It kind of hits the sweet spot between two opposing forces.”

Chiaki spent 14 years as a social worker before transitioning to art. He moved to Japan’s remote Sado Island to study at a school for bamboo art under master craftsmen Honma Hideaki and Kawano Shoko. It was on Sado where he was introduced to the shifting color technique used in Calm Mind, which he learned directly from artist Fujitsuka Shosei.

“Originally, [Chiaki] made two pieces that were, compositionally, near images of each other,” Thoma says. “One was blue and black — Calm Mind — and the other was red and black and was kind of intended to represent the idea of passion and dynamism.” Chiaki created the two sculptures as companion pieces representing the dual aspects of heart and mind.

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FIRED EARTH, WOVEN BAMBOO

Asian Art Newspaper, , JANUARY 6, 2014

Original article at Asian Art Newspaper.com

THE MUSEUM OF Fine Arts in Boston has recently received a transformative gift of over 90 pieces spanning the late 20th and 21st centuries, given by collectors Stanley and Mary Ann Snider from their Japanese art. This continues the tradition of collectors of Japanese art making donations to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), that have included such gifts from Ernest Fenollosa and William Sturgis Bigelow. Stanley and Mary Ann Snider represent a new generation of Bostonians who want to ensure that visitors to the museum will understand the vibrancy of Japanese art and culture in our own time by viewing their collection of ceramic and bamboo art.

This exhibition, curated using their recent gift,  highlights the craftsmanship and highly creative sculptural forms of Japanese decorative arts. Among the first exhibitions to present contemporary ceramics alongside baskets, Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo offers an in-depth look at 60 objects created by dozens of leading artists based in Japan. Many of the works are on view for the first time and are enhanced by a selection of contemporary textiles, screens and paper panels.

During the late 19th century and into the 20th century, ceramics and bamboo arts in Japan evolved from traditional crafts into modern art forms, as those who produced them evolved from craftspeople into artists. As modernisation continued, a new generation of artists began to assume creative control over the works they produced, creating unique pieces with their own hands, based on their own ideas. Creativity – rather than mere technical excellence – became the standard for an artist’s work.  In ‘basket with bamboo-root handle’ (1930s), for example, Maeda Chikubosai demonstrates an early example of bamboo art as a form of personal expression.

In the years following World War II, avant-garde clay artists in Japan declared that their work no longer had to take the form of traditional vessels. Many of these artists maintained respect for ancient methods and aesthetics, while embracing the non-functionality of their ceramics. The earliest generation of contemporary ceramic artists live through a major turning point in the history of the medium: a shift in creative control from kiln foreman or craftsman to artist, and the ensuing evolution of ceramics from commercial products to works of art. Beginning in the early 20th century, leading ceramicists, while still influenced by traditional approaches, explored the medium as a means of self-expression and gave shape to their own aesthetic sensibilities by working directly with the materials. Akiyama Yo intentionally exploited deformations that would be considered defects in commercial products with Untitled MV-1019 (2010), which purposely employs cracks in the clay to provide a weathered effect. Fukami Sueharu, who brought Japanese ceramic arts to global attention, also adopted inventive approaches to traditional techniques. His The Moment (Shun) (1998) is a keenly edged abstract work of porcelain that slices through space like a knife.

Recently, international praise has centred on pioneering female ceramists. Until the post-war era, virtually no women in Japan were ceramic artists; men feared that the presence of women would pollute their kilns. Koike Shoko was one of the first female graduates of the ceramic department at Tokyo National University of the Arts. Her shell-shaped vessels, such as Shell 95 (1995), were first thrown on a wheel and then sculpted from the clay of the Shigaraki region. Whereas traditional Shigaraki vessels are left unglazed, Koike applies layers of white slip (liquefied clay) to the surface. Sakurai Yasuko, also among the first women to work with clay on a university campus, plays with forms that make the viewer aware of light and shadow in Vertical Flower (2007).

In contrast to ceramic art, contemporary bamboo art continues to be dominated by artists who were trained through apprenticeships, often in regions where bamboo work has traditionally flourished. During the last century, however, the medium has seen great change. Since the 1950s, Japanese bamboo artists have created highly original pieces that transcend utilitarian use and represent independent works of sculpture. Contemporary bamboo art continues to be dominated by artists trained in the facilities or apprenticeships in regions where bamboo work has traditionally flourished, including Oita, Osaka, Shizuoka, Tochigi, and Niigata. Most of the artists whose works are collected (in this exhibition) were trained in or are active in these regions. Despite this adherence to tradition, the medium has greatly evolved and diversified over the last century. As bamboo art focuses not on the application of decoration, but on fashioning the form of the object itself, it calls forth more radical originality from artists seeking innovation.  In the late 19th century and early 20th centuries, the making of Chinese-style baskets flourished, primarily in Osaka, against a background of sencha (tea) ceremony culture. Soon, as with ceramics and other crafts, those who made bamboo works began to gain recognition as artists rather than merely as craftsmen.

By the 1920s, bamboo artists had begun to show their work in public exhibitions such as the Japan Art Exhibition (Nitten), and from the 1950s at the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition, which demanded originality from participants.

A novelty introduced by artists working in the style where curving forms predominate is the appearance of quasi-architectural structures, composed of straight lines. This is illustrated in Yako Hodo’s piece in the exhibition – Late Autumn. The more daring and experimental work is done by artists exhibiting in shows such as the Japan Art Exhibition and the Japan Contemporary Arts and Crafts Exhibition, along with other artists who are not affiliated with any arts and crafts organisations. Among the artists in this category are Torii Ippo, Honma Hideaki, Watanabe Chiaki, Yamaguchi Ryuun, Shono Tokuzo, Honda Shoryu, Morigami Jin, and Mimura Chikuho. These artists often generate a unique and lyrical sense of movement in their work through the spatial properties of braided structures that make dynamic use of the material’s pliability and elasticity.

In Fire (2011), Yamaguchi Ryuun displays his creative approach by leaving the ends of strips of bamboo unbound, allowing them to spread out and create a voluminous form. Morigami Jin produces shapes that are possible only in bamboo sculpture, his Red Flame (2007) is vessel-like but is transformed into an expression of lines and silhouette in brilliant colours. The development of bamboo works as art – freed entirely from functional use as vessels or baskets – can also be seen in works by Fujitsuka Shosei. Fujitsuka’s pieces span a range from useful objects such as lampshades to the minimalist, elegant flames of Fire (mentioned above). Tori Ippo’s undulating works are far from traditional, functional wares. His Flight (2003), features complex, contrasting bands of twisting bamboo that arc and command the space around them. Another novelty introduced by contemporary bamboo artists, where curving forms predominate, is the appearance of quasi-architectural structures composed of straight lines, such as Yako Hodo’s Late Autumn (2004).

Until 8 September, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, www.mfa.org.

PRESS RELEASE: TAI Modern at Art Miami 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

TAI Modern at Art Miami 2017
December 5th– 10th, 2017
One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL

Contact:
Arianna Borgeson
Arianna@taimodern.com
(505) 984-1387

TAI Modern is pleased to announce its participation in the 28thyear of Art Miami. This year’s fair will be held at a new location at One Herald Plaza, on 14thStreet between the Venetian and MacArthur Causeways. Art Miami opens with a VIP preview on Thursday, December 5th, and runs through Sunday, December 10th. TAI Modern will be exhibiting recent works by contemporary Japanese bamboo masters, as well as contemporary American artists of various media.

For TAI Modern’s return to the fair, the gallery will present works which reflect the continued development of the Japanese bamboo arts. Representing over 35 artists in this medium, including Living National Treasure Fujinuma Noboru, TAI Modern has been the premier gallery for contemporary Japanese bamboo art for over 20 years. Other noteworthy bamboo artists include Honda Syoryu, Fujitsuka Shosei, and Nagakura Kenichi, who each exemplify varying traditional and regional aesthetics with their unique sculptural styles. These artists have pieces in several major American museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is featuring its first exhibit of Japanese bamboo art.

To compliment the selection of Japanese bamboo, TAI Modern will also feature works by contemporary American painters Erik Benson, Siobhan McBride, and Monique van Genderen. Benson’s work is highly detailed with an urban edge, creating cityscapes with his signature technique of cutting shapes from acrylic paint and applying them to canvas. McBride’s work is fragmented and dream-like, her subject matter and color choice represent a combination of the mundane and unfamiliar.  In contrast, van Genderen’s work focuses more on the versatility of her color and her use of direct brushstrokes, which result in highly lyrical compositions.

For more information about Art Miami or to request a pass to the fair, please contact Arianna Borgeson at arianna@taimodern.com, or (505) 984-1387.

CATALOGS
  • From Timber to Tiger: The Many Bamboos of Japanese Bamboo Art at AWNY 2025
    March 13, 2025–March 21, 2025
  • TAI Modern at Asia Week New York 2024
    March 14, 2024–March 22, 2024
  • Winter Shadows
    December 1, 2020–December 31, 2020
  • Crossing
    Crossing
  • Crossing
    Crossing
  • Crossing 14
    Crossing 14
  • Sphere 1
    Sphere 1
  • Wish Upon A Star
    Wish Upon A Star

Tuesday–Saturday
10am–5pm

 

1601 Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM 87501
(505) 984 1387

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