EXHIBITION CLOSING SOON
From the Sea
July 24 – August 21, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday July 23, 6-8pm
Text by Xiaohan Du
Summer is the season defined by the desire to go to the sea, an entity that is an amalgam of so many senses: the sound of waves brushing against the shore, the granularity of the sand on the skin, the brininess of the breeze, and most importantly, the kaleidoscope of life in all its colors and forms. Onishi Gallery’s summer group show From the Sea presents works from nine artists that bring these senses of the sea into an elegant space on the Upper East Side, featuring ceramics, metalwork, and a felt piece.
Kaneshige Kōsuke (b. 1943, Japanese) reinterprets the ancient Bizen tradition with a sense of humor and imagination; Ōsumi Yukie (b. 1945, Japanese) and Nakagawa Mamoru (b. 1947, Japanese) each in their own way merges the metallic touch with the calming pattern of the ocean waves, reminiscent of the dreamy realms of silver-plated screens from the Momoyama period; Tokuda Yasokichi IV (b. 1961, Japanese) and Shōmura Ken (b. 1949, Japanese) capture the blue serenity of the sea and materialize it into a smooth tactility further enhanced by the elegance of shapes. Konno Tomoko (b. 1967, Japanese) makes ceramics that celebrate the glory of life and its many forms in the deep sea, a veritable sculptural equivalent of the best of Joan Miró’s biomorphic paintings. Inoue Manji’s (1929-2025, Japanese) white porcelain on the other hand commemorates the profound silence of the sea, as the starting point of life where everything came from nothingness.
The Japanese ceramics are accompanied by three metal wall pieces by Jeffrey Maron (b. 1949, American), whose exposure to animism during his time in Japan continues to manifest in the infinite dynamism of his geometric compositions. Liam Lee (b. 1993, American)’s felt piece stands in complete tactile contrast to the other works in the show as he exploits the suppleness of felt as a metaphor for the malleability of life and growth.
The show starts on Friday July 24, with opening reception the evening before. Works by Kaneshige Kōsuke and Konno Tomoko will be participating in Homo Faber this September in Venice, Italy, as Onishi Gallery celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year.
About Xiaohan Du
Xiaohan holds a PhD in Art History from Columbia University. Her research examines Sino-Japanese exchanges from the eighth to the fourteenth centuries. Xiaohan currently serves as the John H. Foster Assistant Curator of Pre-Modern Asian Art at the Asia Society Museum.
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UPCOMING AUTUMN ASIA WEEK NEW YORK EXHIBITION
Across the Sea: Onishi Gallery with Homo Faber
September 10 – 30, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, Sept 10, 5-8pm
Gallery Talk by Xiaohan Du: Saturday, Sept 12 at 3pm
Text by Xiaohan Du
“Homo faber suae quisque fortunae.”
(Every person is the maker of their own fortune.)
—Appius Claudius Caecus, 3rd century BCE
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we are pleased to present a special exhibition bringing together the work of ten artists, four of whom will also participate in the 2026 edition of Homo Faber on the Island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice this September. Homo Faber, meaning “human as maker,” embodies in many ways the inner spirit that drives artistic creation. The exhibition brings together works in ceramics, metal, lacquer, and other media, each possessing its own distinctive material language and engaging in a profound dialogue with its maker.
As an art historian who has long observed, studied, and reflected on art, I have returned again and again to the same question: Why do human beings create art? Ultimately, the answer points to a quality shared by artists: they become artists not simply by choice, but by necessity. In other words, they possess an almost existential need to engage with their chosen medium.
As Kaneshige Kosuke (b. 1943) shapes iron-rich Bizen clay into vessels, he is simultaneously engaged in a dialogue with the material. Rusu Aki (b. 1976) wields a welding torch to join delicate fragments of metal, evoking Prometheus wielding the legendary flame. Konno Tomoko (b. 1967) layers countless tiny, hair-follicle-like forms to create ceramic works filled with seemingly infinite imagery. Onihira Keiji (b. 1973) employs gold, silver, crushed quail eggshells, white mother-of-pearl, South Sea abalone shell, and other materials to recreate the cosmos within his lacquer works. Noguchi Ken (b. 1982) constructs sinuous, concentric waves across gracefully curved and richly rounded lacquer forms. Their layered, luminous black surfaces evoke the profound imagery of the ocean embedded within the Japanese cultural psyche.
Through the media they have each chosen, these artists quietly express a shared conviction: in the process of creating art, human beings are also shaping themselves. Perhaps this is what sustains the creatively productive tension between Homo Faber—the maker—and Homo Sapiens—the human being.
Participation in this year’s Homo Faber exhibition marks an important milestone in our 20-year history and ushers our longstanding mission to promote and support Japanese kōgei into a new phase. Many of the artists in this exhibition have encountered aesthetic ideas and perspectives outside their own traditions. These encounters have prompted them to reconsider the traditions of Japanese art and transform them into forms of contemporary artistic expression.
This fall, their works will cross the seas, appearing in both New York and Venice and encountering audiences from around the world.
We look forward to welcoming you soon!
About the Gallery
Since its opening in 2005, Onishi Gallery has featured contemporary Japanese artists who work in a range of media, including ceramics, metalwork, lacquer, glass, sculpture and painting. These artists are united in their common embrace of tradition in the creative process, and they are distinct in their exquisite and diverse modes of expression. Onishi Gallery merges the past with the present through the presentation of historically rich explorations of traditional art forms and ambitions experimentations in new formats in the center of the international contemporary art scene in New York City.
The Japanese Government has designated several artists that Onishi Gallery represents as Preservers of Important Intangible Cultural Properties, more commonly known as “Living National Treasures.” The Minister of Culture considers locality, tradition and the perpetuation of historic techniques when awarding this title to artists. Once an artist is recognized as a Living National Treasure, their profile publicized on a national and global level, dramatically increasing the value of their work. Many of these artists have works that are included in the permanent collections of major museums, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Worcester Museum of Art. The system aims to not only celebrate and preserve the historic artistic traditions of Japan, but challenge living artists to continuously improve and incorporate their own individual style while still mastering their craft.
