Born in 1959, Nobuyuki Tanaka graduated in 1985 from the Tokyo University of Arts and uses the ancient dry-lacquer technique to create amorphous, curving forms with meticulously finished surfaces that incorporate tactility and translucency. The colors are those used in traditional lacquer ware: high-gloss black or red, or a mélange of both. The sculptural works range widely in size and explore both the horizontal and vertical orientations.
BIO
1959 Born in Tokyo
1983 B.F.A., Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
1985 M.F.A., Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
2003 Received Takashimaya Art Award, Takashimaya Culture Foundation
2012 Received the 18th MOA Mokichi Okada Prize craft arts section award
Lives and works in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and works as a Professor at the Kanazawa College of Art in the Department of Craft (Urushi lacquer)
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1989 Gallery Yamaguchi, Tokyo (also in ’90,’96)
1999 EXHIBITION SPACE, Tokyo
2004 Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Art Gallery, New York
2008 Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Art Gallery, New York
2009 Nizayama Forest Art Museum, Toyama
2010 Takashimaya Art Gallery X, Tokyo
2011 Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Art Gallery, New York
2014 Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2015 Koichi Yanagi Oriental Fine Art, New York
2016 The Ueno Royal Museum Gallery, Tokyo
2017 Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2022 Thomsen Gallery, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1987 The 5th Asahi Contemporary Crafts Exhibition, Tokyo
Japanese Lacquerware－In Relation to Space, Wacoal Ginza Art Space, Tokyo
1988 LACQUER ART & CRAFT, Shibuya Seibu Craft Gallery, Tokyo
1989 Japan Design Competition Ishikawa, Ishikawa Industrial Exhibition Hall (also
in’93)
Memorial Exhibition for Shigeo Miki, Exhibition Room of Tokyo
National University of Fine Arts and Music, Tokyo
1991 Contemporary Sculpture－12 fresh artists－, KSP Gallery, Kanagawa
URUSHI WORK 1991, Shibuya Seibu Craft Gallery, Tokyo
1993 Nuances in Lacquer－70 Years of Innovations, Crafts Gallery, The National
Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1994 Contemporary Japanese Lacquerware Artists, Studio Com, Kyoto
Vessels for Taste and Desire, Gallery Isogaya, Tokyo
Contemporary Japanese Lacquerware, Kanagawa Prefectural Hall Gallery
Spirit and Form of Asia－Material and Imagination－, NTT Credo Hall, Hiroshima
The Domain of the Medium, Crafts Gallery, The National Museum of Modern Art,
Tokyo
1995 Three Dimensional Miniature Works－on the Wall, Gallery Maronie, Kyoto /
Wacoal Ginza Art Space, Tokyo (also in ’96,’97)
The Vision of Contemporary Art ’95, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
Power of the Earth, Gallery of Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music,
Toride, Ibaraki
1996 The Presentiment of Beauty, Takashimaya Art Gallery, Tokyo/ Osaka / Kyoto /
Kanagawa
Rainbow and Shimmering Bridge : Contemporary Japanese Lacquerware,
Japan Society Gallery, New York / Denver Museum of Art, Colorado
The 1st Japan-Korea Friendship Exhibition of Modern Lacquer Works, Lotte Art
Gallery, Busan, Korea / Kanazawa City Cultural Hall, Ishikawa
Message to Those Yet To Be Born, Space Katachi, Tokyo
Contemporary Japanese Crafts, The Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo
World Urushi Exhibition－Its Origin and Oresent, Fujita Vente Museum, Tokyo
1998 Nature as Object－The 3rd Australia International Craft Triennial, Art Gallery
of Western Australia, Perth
The 2nd Japan-Korea Friendship Exhibition of Modern Lacquer Works, Daejeon,
Korea / Gallery Sowaka, Kyoto
Contemporary Fragrance Vessels, The Museum of Fragrance, Toyoda, Shizuoka
1999 The Genealogy of Craft Objects, Crafts Gallery, The National Museum of
Modern Art, Tokyo
2000 Japanese Contemporary Urushi Art Exhibition, Museum Jan Van Der Togt,
Amsterdam, The Netherlands / Ishikawa Wajima Urushi Art Museum
The International Asian Art Fair, New York (also in ’01)
The 3rd Japan-Korea Friendship Exhibition of Modern Lacquer Works, Gwangju,
Korea / Exhibition Space, Tokyo
Objets Plastiques, Ornaments, and Other Contemporary Works Classified into a
Group between Crafts and Sculptures, Takaoka Art Museum, Toyama
2001 Art Works on the Desk Top IX, Contemporary Art NIKI, Tokyo
VISION : Selected Works from The Collection of Toyota Municipal Museum of Art,
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi
life/art '01, SHISEIDO Gallery, Tokyo (also in ’02,’03,’04)
2002 Traditional and Innovation : Ceramic and Lacquer, Hiroshima Prefectural Art
Museum
2003 New Movements in Craft I－Respective Forms－, Takashimaya Art Gallery,
Tokyo/Kyoto
2003 Texture and Its Meaning, Kanazawa College of Art
Contemporary Progressive Crafts, Hiroshima Citizen's Interchange Plaza Gallery (also at Tanabe Municipal Museum of Art, Wakayama, in’04)
2004 Objects Intended for the Desk Top X, Contemporary Art NIKI, Tokyo
New Movements in Craft II－Respective Forms－, Takashimaya Art Gallery,
Yokohama / Osaka / Nagoya
MODERN MASTERS & COLLECTION, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary
Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa
2005 Ars Nova－Between the Contemporary Avant-garde Art and the Crafts, Museum
of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
life/art '05, SHISEIDO Gallery, Tokyo
2006 Station 2006 Vol.1 Sendai, The Eyes / Gaze of People Waiting, Sendai Station,
Miyagi
Japan & Korea Lacquer Arts Exhibition, Tokyo National University Art Museum,
Tokyo / Ishikawa Wajima Urushi Art Museum
2007 Uchu-Miezu, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichiv
Cheongju International Crafts Biennale 2007, Crafts: A Mode of Life, Cheongju,
Korea
Roppongi Crossing 2007, Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art, Mori Art
Museum, Tokyo
2008 JAPAN! CULTURE＋HYPER CULTURE Exhibition, Kennedy Center, Washington,
D.C.
2010 First International Triennale of Kogei in Kanazawa,21st Century Museum of
Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
China Hubei International Lacquer Triennial 2010, Hubei Museum of Art, China
IZU URUSI ART FESTIVAL, Fukushima Museum
2011 Contemporary Japanese Lacquerware, Urasoe Art Museum, Okinawa
Silent Echoes;Collection 1, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Urushi Exhibition; Style of New Lacquer, The Museum of Arts ＆Crafts, Itami
AIZU URUSHI ART FESTIVAL 2011, Fukushima
2012 The destination of the figurative arts－A material tells Rakusui-tei Museum of Art
Exhibition,Toyama
The 18th MOA Mokichi Okada Award：Prospecting the Future of Nihonga and Kogei Grand Prix of Painting Section, MOA Museum of Art
New Footing Eleven Approaches to Contemporary Crafts, The National Museum
of Modern Art, Tokyo
125th Anniv.Event Tokyo University of the Arts, URUSI ART history and the
future, Tokyo
AIZU URUSHI ART FESTIVAL 2012, Fukushima
2013 Kuroda Tatsuaki,Tanaka Nobuyuki－The Power of Lacquer, Toyota Municipal
Museum of Art/Aichi
2013 International Lacquer Art Exhibition, Gukje Art Museum Keimyung
University Korea
Hubei International Triennial of Lacquer Art 2013 WORLD OF GREAT LACQUER
ORIGIN AND FLOWS, Hubei Museum of Art, China
Deployment of the present age craft, Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum
Ishikawa
Contemporary Kogei Styles in Japan, Morikami Museum and Japanese
Gardens, Florida
The Audacious Eye: Japanese Art from the Clark Collections, Minneapolis
Institute of Arts, Minnesota
2014 TEFAF, Maastricht
COLLECT, Saatchi Gallery, London
2015 Simple Forms, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
2017 Suzu Oku-Noto Triennale 2017, Suzu, Ishikawa
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum
The Japan Foundation, Tokyo
The Museum of Fragrance, Toyoda, Shizuoka
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi
SHISEIDO Art House, Shizuoka
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Utatsuyama Craft Workshop, Ishikawa
Rakusui-tei Museum, Toyama
Metropolitan Museum, New York
Gitter-Yelen Foundation, New Orleans
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota
Victoria and Albert Museum, England
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich, England
Grassi Museum, Leipzig, Germany
Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, Hubei, China
JT International, Geneva, Switzerland
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania