Sculpture in the Room｜Artwork list

【Profile】
ALEXA DAERR｜アレクサ・デア(1946-)
Born in Paris in 1946. At the age of six, she created her first book. After graduating from an art school in Paris, she focused on watercolor painting and textiles while living in various countries including Japan and Pakistan with her diplomat husband. Particularly during her stay in Nigeria from 1988, her interest in three-dimensional works grew, leading her to start creating ART BOOKS in the 1990s. She has exhibited her works at art book fairs and galleries in New York, Paris, Berlin, and other cities.

Hisako SEKIJIMA｜関島寿子(1944-)
Sekijima Hisako was born in Tainan (Taiwan) in 1944. In 1975 she moved with her husband to New York. The museums and collections she had access to in New York gave her the opportunity to study the weaving traditions of numerous cultures. Her encounters with the avant-garde of modern basket makers in the States (Ed Rossbach, John McQueen) opened up totally new approaches for her. She was fascinated by how these basket makers, through study and practice of traditional techniques, found their own very individual style. Since that time she has been making baskets exclusively.

Her finesse in weaving with various natural materials, her imaginativeness in working with woven structures, her well-educated fantasy and her humility are quickly leading her to become the most important artist in contemporary basket making in Japan.

ISABURO KADO｜角 偉三郎(1940-2005)
Born in 1940 in Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the heart of the Japanese lacquer tradition. Try at least to learn chinkin.” Chinkin is a technique of decoration that involves scratching thin lines into lacquer surfaces that are later filled with gold. So at the age of fifteen Kado began an apprenticeship with the famous chinkin-master Hashimoto Tetsushiro.

After completing the apprenticeship, Kado used the chinkin technique to create lacquer panels. He was strongly influenced by contemporary American painters whose works he saw in exhibitions in Tokyo, and took part in a movement in modern lacquer art that is not interested in functional objects but rather in creating images and sculptures out of lacquer. He received numerous prizes and awards, including the right to take part in the Nitten exhibition every year without prior evaluation by the judges.

In the beginning of the 1970s, inspired by the discovery of old forgotten food bowls in a temple, Kado became increasingly fascinated by bowls as subjects for lacquer art. In 1982 he dropped out of Nitten and put together his first exhibition of bowls. Despite his wide-ranging interests, Kado was deeply immersed in the local craft traditions of Wajima. He used these traditions and created well-chosen modern forms that incorporate a good deal of freedom and playfulness. Kado worked together with a range of craftsmen in Wajima.

Lutzenberger + Lutzenberger | Susanna Lutzenberger, Bernhard Lutzenberger
Lutzenberger+Lutzenberger is an artist unit formed  by Susanna and her partner Bernhard. Susanna was born in Traunstein in 1963. After working in different textile workshop in Germany and France, she studied textile design at the Academy of Arts in Stuttgart. Bernhard was born in Augsburg in 1958. After studying silversmithing at the State Vocational School of Jewelry and Glass in Neugablonz, he established his own metal workshop. In 1991 Susanna and Bernhard founded their common workshop Lutzenberger+Lutzenberger, based in Bad Wörishofen in South Germany. In the first decade they engaged in a wide range of creative activities from product design to art, interior design, and architecture, working mainly for museums and art galleries and hospitals.

After 2000 Susanna and Bernhard started to focus on projects that combine art and architecture, mainly in sacred spaces. They are designing and building the interiors of churches, chapels, and prayer rooms, and create murals, facades, sanctuaries, altars, liturgical furniture and liturgical tools etc. for sacred places, mainly in Europe. Nowadays they are highly acclaimed both domestically and internationally.

Otto BAIER｜オットー・バイヤー(1943-)
Otto BAIER was born in 1943 in the outskirts of Munich to one of the oldest German blacksmith workshops which has existed for 550 years. After graduating from high school, he studied forging techniques and entered the Technical University of Aachen in 1965, and upon graduation in 1968, he obtained his master’s degree as a blacksmith and took over the workshop in 1972. Since then, he has been working mainly in three fields: Church work such as crosses, candelabras, and chancel chalices. Metal works for architecture such as fountains, iron fences, sundials, and gates. And tools such as fireplace tools, candlesticks, trays, and bowls. In his workshop, the raw materials are shelved, and dozens of hammers and other tools are neatly arranged. The workshop itself, abundant with natural light, looks as beautiful as a perfect installation. Otto Baier is one of the most renowned blacksmith artisans not only in Germany but also in the world. At 79 years old he is still active in hammering iron and titanium. His works are found in numerous museums and private collections.

Young-Jae LEE｜李英才(1951-)
Born in Seoul in 1951. After majoring in fine arts at Soo Do Women’s University in Seoul, she looked for a place to train as a potter in Korea, but at the time there were no workshops that would take a woman as an apprentice, so she decided to move to Germany where she apprenticed with Christine Tappermann. After graduating in 1978, she set up her own workshop in Sandhausen, near Heidelberg. In 1987, she became the head of the Ceramic Workshop Margaretenhöhe in Essen. The workshop was founded in 1924 under the influence of the Bauhaus and is one of the oldest ceramic workshops in Germany. In addition to her duties as the head of the workshop, Lee has been refining her own specific artistic expression through her ceramics. She works mainly with cylindrical and spherical shapes in a minimalistic way. She throws vases and bowls on a potter’s wheel and fires them in a wood-fired kiln of her own design. The focus of Young Jae Lee’s art is to view the vessel as a sculptural work, drawing on the ancient pottery traditions of Europe and East Asia.