"Tetsuhiro Iwata Exhibition" will be held from 2/12 (Sat.) to 2/15 (Tue.) at the Uehara store.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Uehara will hold the first solo exhibition of ceramic artist Tetsuhiro Iwata from February 12 (Sat) to February 15 (Tue), 2022.

Although it is a relatively new maker that started handling from the 2021 special exhibition "Children's Vessel Exhibition", we have already received many inquiries.

Iwata was born in 1981 in Tottori prefecture. Speaking of his true worth, it is the solid potter's wheel skills that he has honed under the potter Tamaki Ito, and his own three-dimensional compositional ability.

Seeing Iwata's works side by side as a group reminds me of the feeling I had when I first encountered Brutalist architecture in England. It's as if each piece of work becomes a modular element, and they are combined in a clear way to form a single architectural piece that speaks the artist's statement very briefly.

It was the first time I felt this way with a ceramic work, and I was convinced that he was a smart and strong-willed creator.

At first glance, Mr. Iwata's works appear to be uniform and industrial products, but upon closer inspection, they are full of traces of rough handiwork and edgy and arbitrary designs. The balance of roundness and hardness is modern, architectural and fashionable. The more I look at the work, the more I feel like I can see inside the flexible and greedy mind of the artist, and it makes me happy.

Mr. Iwata, who majored in architecture during his college and university days, said, “ At the time, I was thinking about space by making volumes continuous, rotating, and shifting. There are a lot of them,” he says, as if he views pottery as architectural.

“ When I was a child, I lived in a land surrounded by the sea and mountains, where there was a lot of nature, and there were many large man-made structures such as long cuboid breakwaters floating in the sea and columnar tanks of the waterworks bureau. I used to feel the change in the shifting light from the light hitting the surface and the falling shadows, so I try to incorporate that feeling into my work.” Sensitivity to shadows is especially important for artists like Iwata who are particular about white. If the shadow doesn't fall, the white part doesn't even exist, and the color of the light can only be applied to the shadow part. .

By the way, Mr. Iwata has been saying "admiration for industrial products" in making works for a long time.

It seems that they are attracted to the unique characteristics of industrial products, and there are many old ones in particular, but if you find a mass-produced product with human error, or a small distortion or crack that occurs in the manufacturing process, you will pick it up without hesitation. Or put away.

“I think that today’s mass-produced products are uniform and lack individuality. On the other hand, if the pottery is too strong, I feel a little tired if I use it daily, so I aim to create a moderate sense of distance from the user.”

Mr. Iwata's goal is to create something that looks like a mass-produced product, but also shows the intentions and movements of the human hand and creator. The intersection of the antithesis of modern industrial products and admiration for old industrial products continues to drive artists to express themselves today.

Mr. Iwata's works are full of humanity. The traces of the artist's daily struggles are visible in the details of his work. I would appreciate it if you could pick it up at the store and feel the context.

It should be a really fun show. Mr. Iwata will also be in the gallery. Please ask a lot about the work.

It's an unstable situation, but all the staff are looking forward to seeing you while paying the latest attention to the prevention of infectious diseases!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Representative Takahiro Igarashi

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"Tetsuhiro Iwata Exhibition"
FOOD FOR THOUGHT Uehara
2/12 (Sat) ~ 2/15 (Tue)
OPEN 11:00~18:00
Reservation required until 13:00 on the first day (reception is closed).
After that, anyone can enter without reservation.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
〒151-0064
2-33-4 Uehara, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
03-6416-8294