February 2020
Sofu Teshigahara at Nonaka-Hill
On view: February 8–March 28, 2020 A beautifully calming space has been erected at Nonaka-Hill in Hollywood. As if to create an outdoor space inside the gallery, the walls are painted in a deeply-hued blue, and gravel rocks are installed. The exhibition celebrates the work of Sofu Teshigahara, an influential teacher and leader in the avant-garde ikebana movement in Japan, who founded the Sogetsu School of Ikebana. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arrangement. Since much of the artist’s works…
Find out more »July 2020
Kaz Oshiro at Nonaka-Hill
Before Kaz Oshiro’s solo exhibition was installed at Nonaka-Hill, the gallery was painted a peaceful blue, and Sōfu Teshigahara’s delicate ikebana sculptures were placed on a serene bed of rocks. Compared to the highly composed nature of Teshigaraha’s exhibition, Oshiro’s work feels ad-hoc and paused mid-installation. Teshigaraha’s blue walls are partially painted over with white. Paint rollers, crates, ladders, and buckets are strewn throughout the gallery. A large dumpster sits center stage. Yet with Oshiro, nothing is quite as it seems. Rounding…
Find out more »September 2020
Sterling Ruby and Masaomi Yasunaga at Nonaka-Hill
At Nonaka-Hill, the two halves of the gallery each contain elaborate, textural, and unique ceramic works that couldn’t be more different. On the left, Japanese artist Masaomi Yasunaga’s ceramic forms look like objects salvaged from a deep-sea journey; the vessels are installed on a densely-packed pedestal, encouraging an exploratory approach from the viewer. In a process that upends traditional vessel making, Yasunaga’s forms are in fact made with glaze as their primary material. Each glaze form is buried in sand or…
Find out more »February 2023
Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver at Nonaka-Hill
In a survey of multimedia works spanning half a century, Synogenesis at Nonaka-Hill marks Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver’s first West Coast solo exhibition. Azuchi has long been taken by the idea of using the physical body as a way to relate to time and space. He approaches reality with a sense of humor and uses the tangible to get a handle on the more intangible elements of nature. The artist’s ongoing BODY (1973-) project entrusts a contract to 80 different individuals…
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