Katsura Funakoshi: New Sculpture

The exhibition will feature seven carved sculptures and related drawings. Funakoshi’s recent output includes half-length busts and figures – both male and female – which carry disproportionately sized heads and/or limbs. To great poetic effect, the artist lengthens necks or displaces hands, arms, or ears so that they appear as wings or horns. With their lips closed and their eyes gazing straight ahead, these subtly painted and polished figures are contemplative and contemporary, grounded by history while at the same time forging towards an imaginary future. Funakoshi’s work engages the past, fantasy and reality, and invites a loaded dialogue between East and West. His work expresses a mystery and spirituality rarely seen in contemporary sculpture.

Katsura Funakoshi was born 1951 in Morioka City and currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. He was educated at Tokyo Zokei University and the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Funakoshi has exhibited in galleries and museums in his over forty year career and his work is included in major museum collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo.