Conceived as a contemporary garden, this presentation brings together works by artists with ties to Kyoto: Shiro Matsui (1960- ), Mikiko Kayama (1987- ), and Jun Nishida (1977-2005).

Shiro Matsui pursues sculpture as an “experiential device” that engages human perception and spatial awareness. His abstract forms, in which the real and the illusory loop into one another, resonate deeply with the spatial sensitivity of Japanese gardens and sansui landscape paintings. Collaborative experiments with JAXA in the 2000s led his practice to expand into the cosmos, moving back and forth across spacetime. Bringing together works from the 1990s and recent years, this presentation traces the interplay of intellect and humor underlying his work.

Mikiko Kayama draws out the latent human emotions in written characters and words, expressing the fleeting moment that animates the imagination and senses with the movement of a single brush. She approaches calligraphy as an artistic medium that has shaped Japanese aesthetic consciousness through its roles in communication, spiritual cultivation, and artistic practice, and turns her gaze toward the narratives people have entrusted to writing.

Jun Nishida transformed clay and glaze into fire-forged amalgams, then broke these forms apart to create ceramic works charged with a striking intensity. This presentation explores Nishida’s pursuit of a fusion between nature and human creativity, an endeavor that altered the course of contemporary ceramics.