Kota Arinaga Japanese, 1978

Kota Arinaga (b. 1978) is an innovative glass sculptural artist who draws on the cross-cultural history of the material. Arinaga’s latest series is an interpretation of the Venetian reticello technique, colorful canes woven into patterns within the glass. Glass has a temporal aspect, requiring careful temperature control and sculpting. Arinaga's glass artworks vary in size in shape, pushing the boundaries of technique and physics. 

Biography:

1978       Born in Osaka, Japan

1998       Studied abroad in Germany

2001       Graduated from Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, Okayama, Japan 

2017       Opened his own studio, “kotaglass,” in Noto, Ishikawa, Japan

Exhibitions:

2022       “On the Axis” Ippodo Gallery New York

2023       "Blown Glass: Mysterious Forms and Techniques" Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

2023       "CORRELATION: Exchange and Inheritance" Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan

2023        JAPAN CRAFT "Design of Hyakko", ATELIER MUJI GINZA Gallery 1 & 2, Tokyo, Japan

Public Collections:

Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan

Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo, Kanazawa, Japan

The Ritz Carlton Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Portom International, Hokkaido, Japan

Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

"I work with blown glass in my home studio in Notojima. In the last few years, my interest has turned towards the lines that emerge from the repetition of daily work. If I enter the studio at the same time every day to prepare, and repeat the process of expanding and shaping the glass repeatedly, the medium becomes an extension of myself; I feel like I can make it forever. That is how I want to nurture my work."

— Kota Arinaga