The Museum of Contemporary Art, Karuizawa
KURAMATA Shiro Exhibition

Apr. 27 [Thu.] ― Nov. 23 [Thu.] 2023 10:00-17:00
Gallery closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
(Open all days during National Holiday Week and Summer season)



*Click the image to jump to the muesum's web.

Venue: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Karuizawa
2052-2 Nagakura, Karuizawa-machi, Kitasaku-gun,
Nagano-ken, 389-0111
Official web: http://moca-karuizawa.jp/exhibitions/
Access: http://moca-karuizawa.jp/access/
Admission fee:  Adult / JPY 1,000-
Adult over 65 & university, high-sghool student / JPY 800-
Middle & primary student / JPY 500-
Preschool child / free
*Tea service is included in the admission fee.
*Free admission for the disabled and up to one accompanying person with a disability certificate.

Designer KURAMATA Shiro (1934-1991) was a pioneer in the field of commercial space, furniture, and product design from the mid-1960s.
He continued to explore creative possibilities based on the themes of "weightlessness" and "non-existence," actively incorporating materials such as acrylic, glass, aluminum, steel mesh, and FRP, which were not used for interior design or furniture at the time.
For his originality and rare existence, KURAMATA continues to attract many people even 30 years after his death, influencing young creators of today who are unaware of his time.
KURAMATA was widely recognized for his "Furniture of Variations" (1970) series, and he has received international acclaim for a succession of innovative works, including "Glass Chair" (1976), born from the encounter between metal and glass adhesive "Photobond," and "Miss Blanche" (1988), a chair with floating roses in acrylic.

This exhibition will exhibit and sell the first, second, and third collections of KURAMATA Shiro's silkscreen works, "Shiro Kuramata Cahier", which are prints based on rare sketches KURAMATA left behind, as well as his representative works, such as "How High the Moon" (designed in 1986), a chair that seems to embody weightlessness, and "Cabinet de Curiosité" (designed in 1989), a cabinet designed to challenge full-scale colored acrylic, and a flower vase made of acrylic blocks (designed in 1989).

Please enjoy the timeless, always new and beautiful world of KURAMATA Shiro.

■KURAMATA Shiro (1934-1991)
In the late 1960s Kuramata became a global designer known for his innovative works. These include many pieces which use a mix of diverse mediums including acrylic, glass, aluminum, and steel mesh. He was born in Tokyo in 1934. He attended the Tokyo Metropolitan Kogei High School and began work at Teikoku Kuzai in 1953. From 1953 to 1956 he studied at Kuwasawa Design Research Center, Department of Living Design, and in 1957 moved to Mie Prefecture to work in advertising, creating window displays. In 1956 he began his own office, Kuramata Design. In 1967 he gained attention after collaborating with Tadanori Yokoo on an interior design project.
From around this time, he started to use the acrylic that he would favor for the rest of his life, creating transparent, weightless works emulating that cloating space of everyday life. Kuramata gained international recognition with his 1970 series "Furniture in Irregular Forms". He was awarded the Mainichi Design Prize in 1972. In 1981 he participated in an exhibition in Memphis set up by Ettore Sottssas Jr., showing works as part of a new Italian design movement alongside Arata Isozaki and Michael Graves. He was awarded the French Order of Culture in 1990. He suffered from heart failure in 1991 and passed away at the age of 56.

Exhibition View

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