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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　このたび、京都を拠点に活動する彫刻家・樂雅臣の個展、「CUBE 樂雅臣彫刻展」を開催いたします。イムラアートギャラリーでは2017年以来、7年ぶりの個展開催です。

　樂雅臣は、茶の湯の歴史とともに茶碗師として450年以上の時を重ねてきた京都・樂家、その第15代樂吉左衞門の次男として京都に生まれました。東京造形大学大学院を卒業後、樂家より独立し、彫刻家として活動。石を彫刻することで人工物として支配する事なく、自然をいかし、造形と共存した作品を表現します。これを「石の中に表現を、表現と共に自然を」という自身の言葉に込めて、制作しています。20代では生命の摂理を表現した「輪廻」、30代ではくちばしをモチーフにした鳥が運ぶ輪廻「Stone box」、40歳を迎えた2023年、同じく輪廻をテーマにしながらも、石を焼くという新しい手法で石の表現を広げた「石器」シリーズを発表。作品の姿、形は変わりながらも、創作の根底にある「循環」というコンセプトと「自然を思いながら制作をする」という感覚は変わることはありません。

　本展では、新たに神武岩（溶結凝灰岩）を用いて制作された彫刻作品「Cube」と「Crack」を中心に、約10点を展示いたします。「Cube」は、物質を立方体で表した彫刻作品です。神武岩（溶結凝灰岩）を立方体の形状にし、焼成することにより歪みや割れが生じ、新たな形状へと変化します。物体の進化を表すとともに、過去の痕跡も表した作品です。また「Crack」も「Cube」と同様に、永久的物質の象徴である石を焼成し、割れを生じさせることにより、「反永久」を表現した作品です。樂は「反永久」について、「常に変化を繰り返す自然の摂理の中で、『永続的』に維持されるものは何もない。現在目にする物質は過去からの進化・変化の過程であって、未来への途中にある。一時的に維持されている光や空気、水、石さえ、留まることのない変化を繰り返している。つまり存在と命は『反永久』、そして『輪廻』、そして『循環』」と語ります。会場で作品と対峙するとき、石を彫り、焼き、時には磨くことで生まれる独特な表情、自然物から生み出されていく作品に込めた彼の思いを感じていただけますと幸いです。