For many years, Rie Kawakami has faced the material of iron, and has been inspired by the variability and origin of the material. She continues to explore expressions that are not limited to physical and visual presence of works, but are conscious of the effects and locality of the exhibition on the space and the viewers. Her recent practice is to visualize the query for life based on the clue of the relationship between the material and immaterial, similarities between micro to macro, the distortions of values that occur between individuals and the total over the vastness of space and time. These have been expressed in sculptures, installations, interactive works, and site-specific works.

Sapporo based artist. Experienced many artist in residence programs and attending exhibitions in France, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Taiwan, U.S.A. Completed master’s degree from Tokyo University of Arts. Born in 1961 in Chiba, Japan. Lives and works in Ishikari, Hokkaido.

Born in 1974 in Hokkaido, Japan. Graduated from Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Design, Dohto University. Lives and works in Tomakomai, Hokkaido.

Using iron, wood, and fiber as materials, I work across genres such as sculpture, installation, crafts, and stage design, based on my own view of life and death.

My work includes “Passage” a steel sculpture with a seed motif. “Absence of Presence” a sculpture made of a collection of threads that visualize important elements hidden in everyday life. “A calm day” a sculpture made of iron wire that reexamines the happiness around us. In recent years, I have been working on “Sculpture of Place” a sculpture that
contemplates the origins of survival and the emergence of place in the footsteps of humankind.

In addition, I continue my consideration of human activity and creativity in “Study of Pillars” and “Monuments of Reproductions”

Born in 1982, Hokkaido, Japan. Freelance photographer and web designer, also artist. Lives and works in Sapporo, Hokkaido.

My works function as memory of the “reality” experienced.Overlaying pictures with different times and spaces, my works have been processed digitally. The artist qualify my works as digital collages, made out only of the photographs I have taken. By reconstructing real landscapes that everyone can see, I express a world that is unreal, yet exists as an extension or parallel to reality and everyday life.

Born in 1993 in Abashiri, Hokkaido. Graduated from Faculty of Arts, Sapporo Otani University. Lives and works in Sapporo.

She finds ancient Japanese aesthetic senses such as “mono no aware” and “wabi sabi” in ordinary scenes, and paints them as Japanese-style paintings. She also believes that all things in this world have a spirit equally, and she paints
the moment when she feels the presence of such spirits in the objects around in her daily life.

To seize all those inconsequential moments that take place every day, as much as possible, without letting them get away, is her own way of living sincerely. Her method of capturing the results of that is, to paint pictures.

Her works are based on the Japanese painting technique of line and surface, but she selects out-of-the-box motifs in an attempt to expand the expression of Japanese painting.