We are pleased to present an exhibition celebrating the publication of Genta Ishizuka: Relative Dimension, the artist’s first monograph. Ishizuka’s work explores the sensory experiences evoked by the transparent membrane and sheen unique to urushi.

The publication includes essays by Minoru Shimizu (art critic and professor at Doshisha University) and Masami Yamada (curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum), examining the distinctive qualities of Ishizuka’s urushi works and their significance within art history. Marking the publication of this monograph, this exhibition presents Ishizuka’s work at the convergence of craft and contemporary art, opening onto a newly emerging field of expression, through a selection that includes rare early pieces, works featured in the monograph, and recent pieces.



| Artist Statement |

What appears as a consistent trajectory in my work may simply be the accumulation of repeated experiments undertaken along the way in pursuit of new possibilities.

I have often found myself drawn toward producing a work by the faint sense of possibilities beginning to unfold. It might begin with a conversation with a friend, an experience while traveling, an encounter with something that unsettled my values, or a moment when a new idea or way of seeing revealed itself to me.

Even if they were not directly reflected in the works themselves, they served as a vital creative source and sustained my practice. With the passage of time, even chance encounters begin to feel as though they were meant to happen, and I have come to feel that they, too, were essential.

Looking back now, I sense a line of continuity running through these moments. Or perhaps it is through the lens of the present that I am tying them together in this way. It is not as though there had been any clear way forward from the beginning.

Through revisiting my past works, the trajectory of my practice began to reveal itself across points that seemed to exist beyond chronology. While putting this monograph together, I found myself thinking about how to redraw that trajectory and reorient myself toward what may come next. By stepping back and reconsidering the present from a wider vantage point, I feel like it may become possible to gain a new perspective on the future as well.

Tracing a line of continuity in my practice while, at the same time, remaining open to new possibilities. This monograph has given me an opportunity to reconsider the balance between the two.


Genta Ishizuka