faro WORKPLACE

Yohei Inoue studied European-style flowers first and then learned more about his native Japanese IKEBANA and NAGEIRE. And has developed a unique style that defies categorization. Based on the rich and beautiful seasonal scenes of Japan, he has been unraveling the history, climate, and culture, combining arts, crafts, and antiques to express a new era in which people can feel nature close at hand.

2022,established the creative platform GREEN BLUE STUDIO with Tomohiro Muramatsu (painter).

January 2023, Opened “Green Blue Kamakura,” a store and art studio selling wildflowers in Hase, Kamakura.
September 2024, published a collection of his works entitled “Green Blue｜Yama Kore Yama Mizu Kore Mizu.

Artist Website

The technique of unraveling textile threads and reweaving the remaining threads, which has become synonymous with her work, forms the core of her artwork, revealing and reconstructing the structure of the textile. Starting from historical and cultural research, the works encourage us to reflect on the encounter or juncture of different elements and cultures, such as Japan and the West, crafts and art, the past and the present, and offer suggestions to us today.

Artist Website

The problem with the coronavirus is that it is colourless and transparent, and I suddenly realised this while riding the bus during the coronavirus disaster. I could notice its presence and avoid it if it had a colour or shape. Looking back, the problem in history was that it always existed colourless and transparent at the time. I tried to embroider colourless things, i.e., embroidering nothing.

Aiko Tezuka

The technique of unraveling textile threads and reweaving the remaining threads, which has become synonymous with her work, forms the core of her artwork, revealing and reconstructing the structure of the textile. Starting from historical and cultural research, the works encourage us to reflect on the encounter or juncture of different elements and cultures, such as Japan and the West, crafts and art, the past and the present, and offer suggestions to us today.

Artist Website

As a “reading textile” like a riddle to be solved, this textile is interspersed with textiles from Europe before the isolation of the country, maps from the time of Dejima, the logo of the Dutch East India Company, chintz patterns of hidden Christians, sketches of unknown authors from the Edo and Meiji periods, an English dictionary from the opening of Japan in the Meiji period, a clock to learn the European time system, Emoji for communication, AI image-generated images by words, etc.

Aiko Tezuka

Artist Website

As a “reading textile” like a riddle to be solved, this textile is interspersed with textiles from Europe before the isolation of the country, maps from the time of Dejima, the logo of the Dutch East India Company, chintz patterns of hidden Christians, sketches of unknown authors from the Edo and Meiji periods, an English dictionary from the opening of Japan in the Meiji period, a clock to learn the European time system, Emoji for communication, AI image-generated images by words, etc.
Aiko Tezuka

Artist Website

Flowery Obscurity (The Night Watch), refers to the masterpiece The Night Watch by 17th-century Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn. Although the title The Night Watch, which the painting is widely known as today, is, in truth, an eponym of the less known fact that by the time it was titled as such, the painting had been darkened by layers of dirt and varnish, even though the painting did not originally depict a night scene. Nonetheless, the immense painting by the Dutch master reveals the delicate depiction of light and darkness that have enthralled viewers over centuries. Meanwhile, in Tezuka’s Flowery Obscurity (The Night Watch), parts of the image of The Night Watch, where Photoshop (image editing software) mechanically perceived as black, i.e., darkish, have been replaced with the exotic floral patterns that appear on Indian “Sarasa” textiles.

Also, if a viewer follows the floral patterns, the logo of the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie: VOC) can be found. Around the time that The Night Watch was painted, the Asian trade was monopolized by VOC, and Indian textiles manufactured in the Coromandel Coast region, southeastern India, were particularly popular among Europeans. For this reason, VOC has contracted with the regional lords and local textile craftsmen in order to produce a lot of Indian Sarasa. The Indian Sarasa crossed the oceans as popular trading items during the age of the Great Voyages and was loved by Indonesians, the French, the British, the Dutch, and the Japanese.

There is a curious dualism between the old master that had left an indelible mark in the history of art and the dyed textiles that were then excluded from the context of art, even though the latter, in fact, enchanted many people and played an essential part in the world economy at that time. This work, referring to the time in which paintings and dyed fabrics co-existed, albeit in parallel, was also designed by Tezuka and woven at the Textile Museum Lab in Tilburg.
(Text by Sachiko Shoji, Curator, Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan, 2019)

The technique of unraveling textile threads and reweaving the remaining threads, which has become synonymous with her work, forms the core of her artwork, revealing and reconstructing the structure of the textile. Starting from historical and cultural research, the works encourage us to reflect on the encounter or juncture of different elements and cultures, such as Japan and the West, crafts and art, the past and the present, and offer suggestions to us today.

Artist Website

Born to a family of potters in 1899, Berndt Friberg would go on to become Sweden’s leading master of the craft. A consummate perfectionist, Friberg threw all of his own pots, creating elegant and delicate shapes and only keeping those that met his high standards. For inspiration, he looked to the traditions of China and Japan, and he painstakingly applied color in layer after layer to achieve matte finishes with incredible warmth and depth and his signature “rabbit’s fur” textured glaze. In 1944 he joined the esteemed Gustavsberg Studio, where he would work until his death. He received many awards, including gold medals at the Milan Triennale in 1948, 1951, and 1954.

Born to a family of potters in 1899, Berndt Friberg would go on to become Sweden’s leading master of the craft. A consummate perfectionist, Friberg threw all of his own pots, creating elegant and delicate shapes and only keeping those that met his high standards. For inspiration, he looked to the traditions of China and Japan, and he painstakingly applied color in layer after layer to achieve matte finishes with incredible warmth and depth and his signature “rabbit’s fur” textured glaze. In 1944 he joined the esteemed Gustavsberg Studio, where he would work until his death. He received many awards, including gold medals at the Milan Triennale in 1948, 1951, and 1954.

Born to a family of potters in 1899, Berndt Friberg would go on to become Sweden’s leading master of the craft. A consummate perfectionist, Friberg threw all of his own pots, creating elegant and delicate shapes and only keeping those that met his high standards. For inspiration, he looked to the traditions of China and Japan, and he painstakingly applied color in layer after layer to achieve matte finishes with incredible warmth and depth and his signature “rabbit’s fur” textured glaze. In 1944 he joined the esteemed Gustavsberg Studio, where he would work until his death. He received many awards, including gold medals at the Milan Triennale in 1948, 1951, and 1954.

Wilhelm Kåge (1889-1960) was a Swedish painter and ceramist, and the artistic director of Gustavsberg Potteries from 1917-1949. Kåge designed advertising for Gustavsberg in addition to creating industrial tableware for them. His prolific output for the company included as many as one new service per year, as well numerous unique hand thrown pieces.

Kåge was a well-established graphic designer when he began working for Gustavsberg in 1917. Kåge had initially undertaken to study painting under Carl Wilhelmsson in Gothenburg and later with Johan Rohde in Copenhagen. He studied graphic techniques at the Plakatschule in Munich and was also a pupil of Henri Matisse in Paris. At Gustavsberg, Kåge was quickly appointed artistic director, and designed many of Gustavsberg’s advertising campaigns.The breadth of Kåge’s experience as a painter and graphic artist translated into his pottery, which often took stylistic cues from modern painting and sculpture. Kåge’s experience working across multiple media lead him to produce many extraordinary pieces. Kåge’s works were showcased in major exhibitions across Europe and garnered positive critical acclaim. Káge was the recipient of several notable prizes including the Grand Prix in Paris for ceramics in 1925 and the Prince Eugen Medal for design in 1949.

Kage remained with Gustavsberg for 32 years, during which he designed 30 different dinner services. Most notable were his Praktika, Farsta, Surrea and Argenta lines.The Praktika line was an early design executed in 1933, comprised of conveniently stackable tableware intended for working class families. Kåge’s Farsta line, which he conceived of in the 1920s, was an extremely successful series of unique stoneware vessels adorned with hand carved details and featured painterly applications of earth tone glazes.The Surrea series was collaboration between Kåge and Gustavsberg intended for an exhibition in Stockholm in the 1940s. Due to difficulties with production and the avant-garde nature of the line, the series was never widely produced. However, some years later these experimental and cubistic ceramic forms became highly collectible for their rarity and beauty. Finally, the Argenta line, designed in the 1930s and produced through the 1950s, were ceramics characterized by mottled aquamarine glazes inlaid with silver to create whimsical figural designs.

Kåge remained at Gustavsberg until 1949, when he was succeeded by his pupil, Stig Lindberg. Kåge continued to create unique and artistic ceramic designs for the firm up until his death in 1960. Kåge’s work is represented in prestigious collections such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.