UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Nakatomi Hajime

June 26 – July 25, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 27 at 2pm

We are pleased to present Nakatomi Hajime, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the US this summer. The exhibition brings together work from five series developed over more than two decades — Prism, Musubi, Auspicious 8, Frill, and FLY — work defined by a single animating question: what does it mean for something not to look like bamboo? Rather than emphasizing material qualities or classical techniques and forms, Nakatomi embraces this paradoxical inquiry. His aim is to express the beauty of bamboo through colors, shapes, sizes, and materials not typically found in bamboo art. The most recent works in the exhibition combine bamboo with other materials, such as gold.

“Many people who see my work murmur, ‘Is this really bamboo?’” Nakatomi has written. “That is because I create my pieces so that they do not look like bamboo. Yet, such small reactions cast a faint light on the path I am taking — they give me the conviction that a new form of bamboo art is being born here.”

Nakatomi came to bamboo art by way of an unlikely path. Raised in Osaka and educated at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he studied business and commerce, he had no prior relationship with art until an interest in ceramics led him to the university art club. A large photograph of Flame, a 1957 bamboo sculpture by master Shono Shounsai, encountered by chance at a Tokyo department store, set him on an entirely new course.

In the spring of 2000, Nakatomi entered the bamboo craft training center in Beppu, Kyushu, one of Japan’s foremost centers of bamboo production. After completing his training, he was introduced to Honda Syoryu, a celebrated bamboo sculptor. Nakatomi served as Honda’s assistant for three years, an experience he has described as transformative not for its technical instruction, but for the spiritual insight it offered into the nature of artistic creation.

We have represented Nakatomi since 2002. This exhibition marks the first time the gallery has devoted a full solo presentation to him. An opening reception will be held Friday, June 26 from 5 to 7pm, followed by an artist talk on Saturday, June 27 at 2pm. The exhibition runs through July 25, 2026.

To learn more, click here.

 

RECENT EXHIBITION

Bamboo Flower Vessels

With spring in full swing, we invite you to discover the quiet beauty and layered history of woven bamboo flower vessels — sculptural forms that hold blossoms as well as centuries of Japanese artistic tradition.

The association between flowers and bamboo vessels in Japan dates back to the 6th century, when Buddhism was introduced from China. In early practices, flower petals were offered in shallow bamboo trays before images of the Buddha, a gesture of reverence that gradually evolved. By the Kamakura period (1192–1333), these offerings transformed into arrangements of stemmed flowers and expanded beyond religious ritual into everyday life. Flower displays became an integral element of interior spaces, and bamboo baskets emerged as favored vessels for ikebana, admired for their natural harmony and refined craftsmanship.

Early bamboo masters created vessels with the understanding that they would be displayed with flowers, requiring a deep knowledge of ikebana principles. Today, while many artists approach these works as sculptural objects in their own right, the dialogue between vessel and bloom remains essential.

To view these elegant works of art, click here.

 

About the Gallery

TAI Gallery was created by Robert T. Coffland, a leading expert in Japanese bamboo arts in the West, who began sourcing works from contemporary masters in Japan. The gallery moved from the founder’s home to a gallery space on Canyon Road, then to its current location in the Santa Fe Railyard in 2006.

Margo Thoma purchased the gallery in 2014 and merged it with her contemporary American art gallery, Eight Modern. Rebranded as TAI Modern, Thoma and renowned bamboo expert, Koichiro Okada, continue Coffland’s mission of building museum-quality collections.

Thoma supports and promotes bamboo art in the West by serving as an advisor to Western collectors and institutions, facilitating public demonstrations, and curating bamboo art exhibitions. She is a tireless collaborator and ally with and for senior artists across Japan, and sponsors aspiring bamboo artists to participate in national competitions. She has written essays for exhibition catalogs both in the U.S. and Japan and is a frequent public speaker on bamboo art.

Works by TAI Modern artists have been placed in some of the country’s most prestigious institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Mint Museum of North Carolina; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Denver Art Museum; Museum of Art and Design; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.