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Critical Essays

Yuka Otani (1978-)

 

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Yuka Otani completed her bachelor’s degree (craft design) in Tama Art University in 2000. She later received her M.F.A. with honors from Rhode Island School of Design in 2008. Her outstanding performance has made her the winner of the Oriental Hotel Hiroshima Prize/Audience’s Prize (Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art) in 2013, and the Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program in 2009. Her works are in the collections of the Museum of American Glass in Millville, New Jersey. Yuka Otani had numerous exhibitions across the United States, Europe and Asia, including the 6th Nakanojo Biennale (Japan, 2017), ‘Fluidness’ (Taiwan, 2017) at the Pier-2 Art Center, joint exhibition ‘Whereabouts’ (2016, curated by Hyperopia Projects) at the glass museum GlazenHuis in Lommel, Belgium, ‘BEST IF USED BY’ (2016) at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft in Houston, Texas, ‘Alchemy: Sugarcane & Rum’ (Taiwan, 2015) at Kio-A-Thau Sugar Refinery Artist Village, ‘Quotidiaen’ (2014) at CelerySpace Gallery in Berkeley, California, and her solo exhibitions ‘Vitreous’ (2014) at Oriental Design Gallery in Hiroshima, Japan, ‘Study for Hojoki’ (2012) at Camel Project Space in Brooklyn, New York.

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Since 2012, she has been collaborating with artisans at the prestigious candy company, Papabubble to produce limited editions candy artworks. Her candy pieces have been featured in Papabubble stores in New York and Tokyo.

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Yuka Otani’s creation is focused on the distinctness of a transparent material which the artist has studied meticulously. The material has a changeable characteristic and unstable to predictable processes and life cycle. In her art creation, Otani also demonstrated the changes in time and temperature, while exploring constancy and inconstancy, past and present as well as reality and representation through a creative fusion across different fields like art, design and science, using glass as a medium along with sugar in expressing a narrative art form. 

Yuka Otani（1978-）

 

Yuka Otani出生於日本東京，畢業於東京多摩美術大學工藝設計系 (B.F.A., Tama Art University) ，隨後取得美國羅德島設計學院榮譽碩士學位 (M.F.A. with honors, Rhode Island School of Design)，曾獲廣島市現代美術館廣島東方酒店獎/觀眾獎 (2013)、Andy Warhol基金會藝術寫作者補助計畫 (2009) 等國際藝術機構肯定，作品榮獲美國玻璃博物館 (The Museum of American Glass) 典藏 。Yuka Otani多次於北美洲、歐洲、亞洲各地展出作品，近期重要個展和聯展包括參加日本第六屆中之条雙年展 (2017)、「消逝的存在」展覽於台灣駁二藝術特區 (2017)、受到國際策展團隊“Hyperopia Projects”邀請參加比利時博物館展覽“Whereabouts” (2016) 、“BEST IF USED BY”於休士頓當代工藝中心 (2016)、「煉金：甘蔗與萊姆酒」於台灣橋仔頭糖廠藝術村 (2015)、“Quotidiaen”於加州Celery Space Gallery (2014)、“Vitreous”於日本廣島Oriental Design Gallery (2014)、“Study for Hojoki”於紐約布魯克林Camel Project Space (2012) 。

 

自2012年開始，Yuka Otani與知名西班牙手工糖果品牌Papabubble合作，推出限量版本的糖製藝術品。Yuka Otani的糖作品已多次於紐約及東京的Papabubble專賣店展出。

 

Yuka Otani的創作關注透明物質本身的獨特性，長期鑽研多變且難以捉摸，隨時間和溫度而改變的過程與狀態。透過純藝術創作、設計與科學的跨領域融合，由玻璃工藝發展到近期以糖的物質轉化作為敘事媒介，探討日常與無常、過去與現在、真實與再現。

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