33. Kawai Kazuhito 川井雄仁

Kawai Kazuhito was born in 1984 in Ibaraki Prefecture, where he still lives and works. He studied contemporary art at Chelsea College of Art in London. After his studies, he returned to Japan and discovered that the medium of ceramics offered him more opportunities to express his creativity.  He decided to study ceramics at the Ibaraki Prefectural Ceramics College to become proficient in it. Kawai Kazuhito's work is characterized by dynamic colors and shapes that, as he himself says, are a representation of his own inner self: irregular, ugly, grotesque and fragile and sometimes all at once. His work looks lavish, with thick glazes that erupt like lava from a volcano, but also includes tiny little decorations meticulously set with unorthodox tools such as needles, tea strainers and mesh food covers: coincidences and well-thought-out precision alternate.  Although influenced by better-known artists such as Katuro Kuwata (see #35) and Brian Rochefort, he has managed to find his own style. Despite its baroque forms, it is also porous and soft with fine details not added separately but an extension of the base itself. As a ceramicist, Kawai Kazuhito has not been around very long, having only completed his training at the Prefectural Ceramics College in 2018, but is nevertheless a much sought-after artist who has several major solo exhibitions to his credit, in Tokyo, Lisbon and Los Angeles.  He also won the Shibuya Award in 2018, and his work is included in the Loewe Collection, the  Takahashi Ryutar Collection and the Okata Collection.