18/04/2026
Our next exhibition, the artist will fly over from Japan 🇯🇵 to open his show in next week and event in Silo6…
Bio: Shun Kumagai’s practice is centred on the layering of different materials, through complex techniques, to create vessels that quietly astound. Each piece has a distinctive surface that continually transforms as the light moves across it throughout the day. The pieces have a mysterious shimmering quality, evoking ancient ruins and lost civilisations.
Shun creates the original shape of each piece with wax. He makes the mould, fills it with slips (clay), then carefully embeds pieces of coloured glass and metal on the surface. This glass melts and crystallises within the mould in a 1000 ℃ kiln. Shun waits for a long time as each piece slowly cools. When it is ready, he slowly splits the vessel from the mould. This is a very long process that is filled with tension and uncertainty as to the outcome. Shun says he is constantly praying.
‘Romance’
Shun Kumagai, Akita, Japan
Opening Event:
25 April (Friday) 5:30-7:30 pm
Public Record, Ponsonby
The exhibition will run from April to May, with a selection of larger works also presented off-site at Silo 6 in early May.
Kumagai’s works possess a quiet brilliance and weight, evoking a sense of romance—as though they have travelled from another era or distant world. Rooted in minimal, vessel-like forms, his glass pieces invite contemplation, carrying a subtle connection between material, light, and time.
This exhibition marks Kumagai’s first solo presentation with us, and we are delighted to welcome the artist to Aotearoa for the opening.
See you in next week!
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