Author Archives: Katsura Ishikawa

Announcing Debbie Donnelly’s Exhibition “Moving Continents series #2”

We are pleased to announce an exhibition Moving Continents series #2 by Debbie Donnelly on September 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Debbie Donnelly lives and works in New Zealand, received Masters in Education, Victoria University College of Education, Wellington.

Specialist in art textiles Donnelly is a practitioner and mentor since completing post graduate studies for Te Auaha Whitireia NZ Institute of Creativity, lecturing in Applied Arts. As a recipient of 2018 New Zealand Japan Exchange programme grant and Creative NZ and Asia New Zealand Foundation grants this has provided stimulus for experiencing cultural interplay. New works on interpretations of cultural identity are mixed with migration and situatedness.

As an inter-disciplinary artist Donnelly uses auto-ethnography; a self-narrative that critiques the situatedness of self with others in social and environmental contexts.
New work based on observations, art processes, exhibition and audience interaction create experiences for informing environmentally located materials and social arts issues.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

This continuing exploration of Yotsugi family history has led me to several locations in Takehara, Hiroshima and Kure before making work in Itoshima. This current experience has revealed the power of environment and family ties lost and renewed over a 25-75 year period. The curiousity of Japanese family connections and stories of immigration to New Zealand increases over time for new generations. As a mid career artist I look back and synthesize several explorations in Japan – using historical artefacts provided by family and friends of lost photos and letters, signage then and now and childhood memories form the basis for this textile work in progress.

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Debbie Donnelly “Moving Continents series #2”
Exhibition style: textile exploration
Date: September 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday/Public Holiday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Davin Saputra’s Exhibition “Figure in Filaments”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Figure in Filaments by Davin Saputra on September 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon), as a result of his activity during his stay at Studio Kura.

Davin Saputra is a 3d Artist from Indonesia, who will be working as a junior 3d character modeler in the games industry after his stay here. He had just graduated from 3dsense Media School, Singapore.
He is interested in creating character art which includes figure sculpting, portraiture, and anatomy studies. He is currently trying to improve his fundamentals on those subjects.

Here are some words from the artist himself.

In this exhibition i want to show some of my studies of figure sculpting as well as my results from my first time using a 3d printer.

I will also present some of my process in creating some of my sculpt from the sketch, final sculpt, slicing the mesh, and printing it. As 3d prints usually take a long time to print, i might not print every single sculpture that I did, however i will still show some of my figure studies in my exhibition.

Davin Saputra “Figure in Filaments”
Exhibition style: Digital Sculpting and 3d printing
Date: September 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday/Public Holiday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Rino Kodama’s Exhibition “Homecoming”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Homecoming by Rino Kodama on September 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Rino Kodama is a 20 year old artist who calls Santa Clara, California home. She is currently a third year UCLA student majoring in Fine Arts and minoring in Asian American Studies. Born in Singapore to Japanese parents, and raised in California, she has never lived in Japan and is excited to see what this one month residency will bring. Rino moves between drawing, photography, wearable art, and performance to tell stories of navigating transnational families and Japanese diaspora. Her work has been shown in Los Angeles and Seattle.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

Homecoming is an American tradition of reconvening with family and friends during the fall to celebrate the new school year. In this exhibition, I am using the term homecoming in the literal sense of coming home. Born in Singapore to Japanese parents and raised in California for the majority of my life, “home” is rooted in many people, places, and things for me. This exhibition will expand upon my diasporic heart, how I navigate transnational family and love through comfort food and hand me downs.

Rino Kodama “Homecoming”
Exhibition style: installation/wearable art/drawings
Date: September 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday/Public Holiday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Lesly Holliday’s Exhibition “SKIES, KITES & CRABS”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition SKIES, KITES & CRABS by Lesly Holliday on September 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

After five years in British Art Schools, Lesly Holliday taught Art & Art History to Advanced Level in Schools and in Adult Education. She continues to produce her own work, with public and private commissions. Her work has been shown in galleries in Manhattan, France and England. Lesly recently won the Wilkin-Chapman and the Maggie Dean awards for paintings exhibited in Lincoln.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

When I arrived at the studio, the weather was extremely hot and humid, but changes all the time from torrential rain to high wind. Walking around I saw a little boy trying to fly a small kite. This intrigued me, as I am currently working on a series of paintings of children engaged in outdoor activities.
The materials I brought with me are limited & I started to make monoprints of the turbulent skies. Meanwhile, I have been visited in the studio by several crabs & took the opportunity to make some sketches.
In some way, I want to combine skies, crabs and kite-making via paint and printmaking.
When I return home,I hope to develop these themes in further work.

Lesly Holliday “SKIES, KITES & CRABS”
Exhibition style: print and paint
Date: September 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday/Public Holiday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Caitlin Bowe’s Exhibition “keep me far from harm and fault”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition keep me far from harm and fault by Caitlin Bowe on September 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Caitlin Bowe is an emerging artist based in Adelaide, South Australia, working predominantly in the field of sculpture. In 2017 she graduated with First Class Honours from Adelaide Central School of Art. Since graduating, Bowe has shown work in the ‘Threads of Thought’ exhibition at Signal Point Gallery as well as ‘The Doll Redefined’ exhibition at Gallery 1855. She has also been a finalist in ‘The Emma Hack Art Prize’ and ‘Youthscape 2018 Exhibition’.

Bowe’s work looks to translate personal trauma through mythological stories and Victorian Mourning aesthetics. Through the use of casting and textile techniques, bodily fears are magnified and exaggerated, as mythological symbols are subtly used to create layers of personal and cultural meanings. By searching for themes in these stories which connect with her trauma, Bowe blends and weaves these themes together to situate herself amongst a larger cultural narrative.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

While in Japan I have been looking at beliefs and symbols of protection. Ideas that imagery, objects, and ritual can keep us safe from forces that are often out of our control.
Through sculptural forms I have mixed Japanese imagery with symbols from my own Celtic heritage which explore beliefs surrounding the idea of protection.

Caitlin Bowe “keep me far from harm and fault”
Exhibition style: Sculpture
Date: September 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday/Public Holiday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Eleonora Allan’s Exhibition “Entre Deux”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Entre Deux by Eleonora Allan on September 22 (Sat) to 24 (Mon), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Eleonora Allan is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily with drawing, video and performance art. She has received her Bachelors in Studio Arts from Concordia University, Montreal in 2018.

My work revolves around the creation of universes in which characters, controlled by dissociative feelings, search quietly to understand their relationship with the external world. Thus being a quest in itself rather then an answer. The subjects vary from introspective and intimate feelings to more philosophical questions such as how to define culture and how it molds the individual in a personal level.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

This absence she could feel it like a whisper; like a delicate call towards a destiny which, though certain, held hands with memories which stumbled from mist to mist.

Eleonora Allan “Entre Deux”
Exhibition style: Video installation
Date: September 22 (Saturday) to 24 (Monday/Public Holiday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 22nd (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Herman Verhagen’s Exhibition “on nature on porcelain”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition on nature on porcelain by Herman Verhagen on August 25 (Sat) & 26 (Sun), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

After his graduation in 2003 from the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Herman Verhagen has been working under the name of J.C. HERMAN as a video artist. Then, after several years of making claymations and 3D-animations, he took the animation out of the clay and started his Pottery Studio in 2011, J.C. HERMAN Ceramics.

Herman Verhagen has a pretty minimalistic approach to both Fine Arts and Ceramics.
He is fascinated by (dis)appearance and (in)significance. In his video works he has been exploring the question of ‘how to disappear’, while in his pottery he found the perfect way to make things without a specific meaning.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

‘on nature on porcelain’ is a diorama, where a cobaltblue watercolour animation of flowers, carps and other nature, will be projected on a porcelain japanese landscape.

also, it contains reflections on truth and poetry!

Herman Verhagen
“on nature
on porcelain”
Exhibition style: animation in cobalt blue on a porcelain landscape
Date: August 25 (Saturday) and 26 (Sunday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 25th (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Carol Swain’s Exhibition “Seeing Again, Making Again, Breathing Again”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition Seeing Again, Making Again, Breathing Again by Carol Swain on August 25 (Sat) & 26 (Sun), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Carol Swain is a visual artist based in Castlemaine, a small country town in North West Victoria Australia. She completed her Master in Contemporary Art at Victoria College of the Art in Melbourne, Australia in 2012. In 2011 receiving the Langridge Oil Painting Award, Post Graduate Show Victorian College of the Art.

Carol’s practice explores the abstract forms in the natural environment which act as a vehicle to her connection to the subtle nuances of colour and how colour influences space and form. She
experiences the landscape through the lens of her imagination not from the stand point of horizon line and perspective.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

Place opens up varying ways of seeing; breathing in seeing , breathing out interpretation; breathing in making, breathing out marks, colours breathing in again.

Carol Swain “Seeing Again, Making Again, Breathing Again”
Exhibition style: Painting
Date: August 25 (Saturday) and 26 (Sunday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 25th (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Fiona Templeton’s Exhibition “a walk in Shiraito”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition a walk in Shiraito by Fiona Templeton on August 25 (Sat) & 26 (Sun), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Fiona Templeton works in performance, installation and writing. Originally from Scotland, she is director of the New York performance group The Relationship. In 2017, the gallery Raven Row in London showed a retrospective of her early work with the Theatre of Mistakes.

Her materials are time, space, language, and the relationship with participants at various levels of creation and viewing. The performances are sometimes large-scale, such as the award-winning YOU-The City, “an intimate Manhattan-wide play for an audience of one,” or L’Ile, which recreated the dreams of the people of Lille, France, in the places dreamed of. She is also interested in smaller shifts in relationship and perception.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

A journey for the audience in a small space. Inspired by nearby Shiraito waterfall, using white thread (shiro ito), and also inspired by the Sazaedo, or Entsu Sansodo double helix temple in Aizu, Fukushima.

Fiona Templeton “a walk in Shiraito”
Exhibition space: Masue Tenmangu Shrine (between Studio 1 and 2)
Exhibition style: Installation/ performance
Date: August 25 (Saturday) and 26 (Sunday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 25th (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.

Announcing Chloe Ong’s Exhibition “A Little Slower, A Little Closer”

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We are pleased to announce an exhibition A Little Slower, A Little Close by Chloe Ong on August 25 (Sat) & 26 (Sun), as a result of her activity during her stay at Studio Kura.

Chloe Ong’s works are inspired by the ideas of utopia and artificial landscapes. Her paintings examine the visual language that fall along the spectrum of East and West. They capture the spirit of landscapes saturated with life and rhythmic movement. The departure from representation leaves an unsettling familiarity to the worlds she creates and gives the viewers a fleeting encounter with the sublime.
Born in Singapore and based in London, Chloe is currently pursuing her Master degree at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.

Here are some words from the artist herself.

Having lived in some of the busiest cities, it has been a complete change and rewarding experience staying in the rural area. In this exhibition, I would be showing a new series of works and sketches that response to this new beautiful surrounding that is moving at a much slower and intimate pace.

Chloe Ong “A Little Slower, A Little Close”
Exhibition style: Painting
Date: August 25 (Saturday) and 26 (Sunday) 11:00 to 18:00. Free entrance

* We will hold an exhibition opening party and an artist talk on 25th (Sat), starting at 17:00.
* The exhibitions by other current residence artists will be also held on the same dates.