Takuro Kuwata

Takuro Kuwata was born in Hiroshima, Japan in 1981. Following his graduation from Kyoto Saga University of Arts, in 2002 he began studying under ceramic artist Susumu Zaima. In 2007, he graduated from the Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center and is currently based in Gifu, Japan. His works have been exhibited globally in cities such as Brussels, London, and New York in major exhibitions including “Art Crafting Towards the Future” (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2012), “Japanese Kogei | Future Forward” (the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2015), “GO FOR KOGEI 2021” (Okamoto-Otaki Shrine, Fukui, 2021), and “Strange Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art” (Hayward Gallery, London, 2022). Kuwata was a finalist for the LOEWE Craft Prize in 2018, and his works have been acquired by various international public collections including the Rubell Family Collection, the Palm Springs Museum, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, the University of Michigan Museum of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Noritaka Tatehana

Noritaka Tatehana was born in Tokyo in 1985. His family ran a public bathhouse called “Kabuki-yu” in Kabuki-cho, Tokyo, while he grew up in Kamakura, Japan. As a small child and under the influence of his mother, a doll artist who practices the Waldorf education method, the artist learned to create with his own hands. Tatehana graduated in 2010 from the Department of Crafts at Tokyo University of the Arts, specializing in textile arts. While researching the culture associated with traditional Japanese courtesans, the artist created geta (traditional wooden clogs) and kimonos with yūzen – a traditional Japanese dyeing technique. Tatehana has presented his work in exhibitions such as “Image Makers” (21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, 2014) and “Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion” (The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2012). He has also held various solo exhibitions which include “NORITAKA TATEHANA: Aesthetics of Magic” (Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, 2016), “It’s always the others who die” (POLA Museum Annex, 2019), “NORITAKA TATEHANA: Refashioning Beauty” (Portland Japanese Garden, 2019) and “Contemporary Japanese Crafts” (touring exhibition in Tokyo, Miyazaki, Kyoto, and Nagoya, 2020-22) amongst others held in New York, Paris, and Belgium. Tatehana has also worked on a wide range of projects, including producing a bunraku performance in 2016 at the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Arts in Paris. His works have been acquired by internationally acclaimed institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Following the first edition in 2021, Tatehana directed the second edition of the online exhibition “Edo Tokyo Rethink” (Kyu-Iwasaki-tei Gardens, 2022), an event organized by the city of Tokyo as part of its cultural program “Edo Tokyo Kirari Project” with a focus on traditional crafts and industries of Tokyo.