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Kazuhito Kawai "Precious Time"
Kotaro Nukaga Tennoz
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Kazuhito Kawai
KOTARO NUKAGA（Tennoz）is pleased to present ‘Precious Time‘, a solo exhibition by Kazuhito Kawai, on view from May 17 to June 28, 2025. Known for his vividly glazed ceramic works that carry a palpable sense of emotional tension, Kawai has received growing recognition both in Japan and abroad, with recent highlights including his participation in ‘GO FOR KOGEI 2023‘ and the acquisition of his work by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Departing deliberately from traditional ceramic values that prioritize material inquiry and formal refinement, Kawai treats clay not as a sacred material, but as a surface onto which fiction, contradiction, and urgent desire can be projected—building fragile, excessive forms that hold personal memory and residues of popular culture that has influenced the artist.
The exhibition takes its title from the 1998 japanese television drama PRECIOUS TIME, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Kyoko Fukada. Revisiting the idealized image of family that had been imprinted upon him through late 1990s and early 2000s Japanese pop culture, Kawai now sets these images against his present reality as a man in his forties. Through staged family portraits and ceramic works intricately constructed like fragments of memory, he explores desires that remain unfulfilled and gives form to the emotional weight of having grown older without attaining what once seemed possible.
Kawai’s sculptures, delicate structures that rise as if straining under their own weight, neither affirm nor reject the idealized image of family. Instead, they quietly suggest the presence of feelings that waver between envy and refusal, the disorientation of having failed to fully inhabit expected social roles, and the lingering residue of dreams that persist nonetheless. For Kawai, clay is not a material of spiritual reverence, but a pliable and breakable medium for recording unstable emotions—grief, shame, humor, and longing. ‘Precious Time‘ invites us not to resolve these contradictions, but to reflect on them as part of the emotional texture of contemporary life.
The exhibition takes its title from the 1998 japanese television drama PRECIOUS TIME, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro and Kyoko Fukada. Revisiting the idealized image of family that had been imprinted upon him through late 1990s and early 2000s Japanese pop culture, Kawai now sets these images against his present reality as a man in his forties. Through staged family portraits and ceramic works intricately constructed like fragments of memory, he explores desires that remain unfulfilled and gives form to the emotional weight of having grown older without attaining what once seemed possible.
Kawai’s sculptures, delicate structures that rise as if straining under their own weight, neither affirm nor reject the idealized image of family. Instead, they quietly suggest the presence of feelings that waver between envy and refusal, the disorientation of having failed to fully inhabit expected social roles, and the lingering residue of dreams that persist nonetheless. For Kawai, clay is not a material of spiritual reverence, but a pliable and breakable medium for recording unstable emotions—grief, shame, humor, and longing. ‘Precious Time‘ invites us not to resolve these contradictions, but to reflect on them as part of the emotional texture of contemporary life.
Schedule | May 17 (Sat) 2025-Jun 28 (Sat) 2025 Opening Hours Information
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| Fee | Free | ||||
| Website | https://kotaronukaga.com/en/exhibition/precious-time/ | ||||
| Venue | Kotaro Nukaga Tennoz https://www.kotaronukaga.com/en/ | ||||
| Location | 1F Terrada Art Complex Ⅱ, 1-32-8 Higashi-Shinagawa, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 140-0002 | ||||
| Access | 8 minute walk from exit B at Tennozu Isle Station on the Rinkai line, 11 minute walk from the Central exit of Tennozu Isle Station on the Tokyo Monorail line, 9 minute walk from the North exit of Shimbamba Station on the Keikyu Main line. | ||||
| Phone | 03-6433-1247 | ||||
| Related images | Click on the image to enlarge it |
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