TAMIKO
KAWATA

ALISON BRADLEY PROJECTS

526 W 26th Street, Suite 814

New York, NY 10001

646 476 8409

alisonbradleyprojects.com

TAMIKO
KAWATA
December 13, 2023 - February 24, 2024
Curated by Sofia Thieu D’Amico

A LISON BR A DLEY PROJECTS
Alison Bradley
Sofia Thieu D’Amico
Claire Foussard
Yuya Kawata
Cayla Blachman

In Lieu of a Hem: Tamiko Kawata
At the age of 87, Tamiko Kawata continues to be a creative powerhouse, meticulous and exacting in her creative
vision as a prolific artist and designer with a multifaceted career of over six decades. With her glimmering maverickspirit, keeping up with Kawata is like chasing a rogue storm: a force of nature that takes in and transforms all thatlay ahead of her.
This indomitable spirit of wit and resourcefulness informs her practice and visual lexicon, accumulated over a
lifetime of vigorous resistance to material limitations, artistic conventions, and social expectations alike. Born in1936 in Kobe, Japan, as the firstborn daughter of a progressive and well-educated family, Kawata’s unconventionaldesire to study art was supported by her parents, her father a well-known professor of mathematics at Tokyo
University of Technology. Her mother’s craft and creative pursuits as a housewife including sewing kimonos
informed Kawata’s aesthetic sensitivity from her youth onwards. Kawata’s experience of the war in Japan forced
movement and instability into her early life: she recalls vividly her family’s evacuation from Tokyo one night as
the city burned, and taking refuge at her first grade art teacher’s home.
Coming of age in postwar Japan, Kawata’s persistent defiance of gender roles and class hierarchies became acore feature of both her personal and professional mission. Seeking escape from the city and free-spirited in her
embrace of nature, Kawata was an avid hiker throughout her teenage and college years, joining her university
mountain-climbing club as its only female member and embarking on arduous ventures into the Japanese Alps.
She relished the equalizing and communal nature of team hiking, and considers the mountains her second home.
Kawata’s visual vocabulary is thus informed by lifelong observations of landscape: voluminous forms absorbed
from the mountains like nests, rivers, and bamboo shoots are drawn in and become elements of the artist’s
internal world.
Kawata received her BA in Sculpture at University of Tsukuba’s Tokyo University of Education campus in 1959.
In university, a Bauhaus design teacher helped her break free of the dominant École de Paris curricula popular inJapan at the time. There she developed a practice conceptually informed by the avant-garde aesthetic philosophiesand movements of post-war Europe and Japan, including Dada, Bauhaus, and Gutai, particularly in their use of
unconventional media. As she describes:
These radical philosophies were perfect to affect the wounded Japanese youth in post World War II. I grew up watchingthem in my formative years in Japan, and these philosophies became my solid core for my way of thinking and for
my art making direction. My works are personal; I work in large and small scales, in the belief of intimacy. They
are my visual diaries.
After graduating, at age 23, Tamiko began working as an artist-designer with Kagami Crystal Glass Works, Co.
Ltd. in Tokyo, a design firm producing high-quality crystal glass art and design objects, known for designing theimperial family’s glasswares, especially for royal occasions. Kawata was the first woman to ever work at the studioas a designer, and there, earned the highest women’s salary in the nation, as well as the second highest national salary.
Producing original designs from crystal chandeliers to whimsical glass sculptures to elegant glassware and lighting
fixtures, Kawata was uncompromising and firm in her designs, pushing back against the sexism of factory coworkers
who—no doubt out of prejudice or competition—often mishandled design parameters in the production line. No
space in her busy mind for the gender binary, Kawata donned overalls at work—the men’s factory uniform—in favorof women’s secretarial clothes. In the absence of a women’s locker room in the design studio, she changed unabashedlywith her male coworkers. Through her innovative design work and strong presence, Kawata overcame sexist oppositionin the workplace and quickly commanded the respect of craftsmen, company executives, and the factory floor alike.
Satisfied with her work in glass and seeking to escape the prevailing expectations of marriage, in 1961, Kawata spent allof her earnings on immigrating to the United States, first spending time in Washington, DC, to study English before
settling in New York City in 1962 where she continues to live and work.
Much of Kawata’s work is diaristically invested in the intersections of Japanese and American identity, expressing her
particular experience of diaspora through its material subtleties. She arrived at her signature media, for example, out ofboth creativity and necessity. When Kawata first immigrated to the US, she found American clothes much too long forher slight frame. Instead of sewing and hemming, which took too much time, Kawata began using safety pins for the
first time (which were not common in Japan at the time) to adapt to American sizing. One night in the 1960s, having
to dress up for a Connecticut party and having no jewelry, Kawata interlinked multiple safety pins to create an avantgarde, witty, proto-punk statement necklace. Donning this conversation piece and, initially self-conscious about her
recent immigration, Kawata became the center of attention that evening. Her jewelry was a sure hit, and soon she began
making and giving away safety pin jewelry.
In 1973, her safety pin wearable art was written up in the New York Times by arts and crafts writer Angela Taylor,creating luxury demand. A boutique frequented by filmmakers and actors called Serendipity on 59th Street began
carrying the collection, and on its debut, customers were lined up at 10am. Kawata was phoned to bring all of the stock
she had available that day to meet the crowds, and from then on walked throughout the garment district buying up
all available safety pins. Initially turning to the pins out of necessity, Kawata’s resourcefulness and the success of her
work couches a profound sense of irony. Her choice to highlight a small quotidian accessory of convenience meant tobe hidden from view turns our perceived measurements of value on their heads: a pointed yet humorous critique ofAmerican consumption.
Once settled into New York, Kawata took occasional trips back to Japan, but had finally found a cultural milieu in
the United States that could keep up with her tireless pace. Kawata built a successful professional life as a designer,
producing jewelry and modernist home objects with rigorous experimentation and acute awareness of material
properties. This body of work drew on major Bauhaus influences from Kawata’s university studies, especially in theirclean lines and simple construction. She taught metal fabrication classes in jewelry and small sculpture from September
1979 at the Crafts Student League YWCA, and later at the 92nd Street YMHA with a teaching career of 35 years.
In 1978, Kawata began exhibiting sculpture for the first time in an open call group exhibition titled Small Works
International at the British Craft Centre in London. Her participation in several preceding shows then led to a 1998
solo presentation at VIBRANT Gallery in SoHo, and a large solo exhibition in 1999 at LongHouse Reserve in East
Hampton, New York, where she exhibited both outdoor and indoor sculpture. Kawata’s practice has since come toencompass site-specific installations across a range of unassuming everyday materials that support our lifestyles only to
be used and discarded, given new life and attention.
Kawata’s practice is also borne out of necessity and resourcefulness, taking form between the spaces of a very fulland active personal life. She was married to architect Ian Robert Ferguson for 55 years before his passing in 2018from Lewy Body dementia. Between caring for her husband and raising two children, without the time or resources
for studio space throughout much of her career, Kawata turned to the stockroom, surplus materials around her toproduce a surprising volume of work. Though singular in her choice of media, Kawata’s practice gestures at adjacent
movements while simultaneously leveraging critiques of them, from Minimalism, to Abstraction, Gutai and Fluxus.
Kawata’s commitments to unconventional material investigations—from used pantyhose, to cardboard, chewing gum,bubble wrap—couch a sly cultural and environmental commentary. Her lifelong ability to channel the humble, theproletarian, the working-class, and the utilitarian reveals a remarkable resourcefulness borne out of a life of movement
and resistance. In Kawata we are witnessing a storm that, if we follow, will clear a new path ahead for us.

Embrace, 1991, Safey pins, 38 x 16 x 5 inAscending, 2008, nickel and black safety pins, 103 x 2 x 2 inWall_02, 2021
Graphite, charcoal
32 x 22 in

Wall_01, 2021
Graphite, charcoal
32 x 22 inDecember, 2016, Graphite on paper, 8 x 10 inNovember, 2016, Graphite on paper collage, 8 x 10 inJune, 2016, Graphite on paper, 8 x 10 inApril_01, 2016, Graphite on paper collage, 8 x 10 inBlue Cloud, 2023, Safety pins, abaca paper pulp, wire, 13 x 26 x 18 inRed Cloud, 2023, Safety pins, abaca paper pulp, wire, 13 x 26 x 18 inFlow of Life_05, 2023, Used pantyhose, 71 x 120 in each sideVertical Wave, 1986
Safety pins
124 x 18 x 8 inRhythm, 2011
Cardboard, acrylic
63 x 3/4 in

Crystal Box, 2004
Safety pins
18 x 18 x 6 inPermutation Seven, 2017, Silver safety pin, piano wire, acrylic on gator board, 30 x 30 inBreathing I, 2023, A Child, 2018, Bamboo Shoot, 2018, Rusted safety pins, 12 x 6 in, 18 x 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in, 16 x 16 x 4 1/2 inThree Small Wings, 2016, Safety pins, 2 x 8 x 9 inThree Wings, 2016, Safety pins, 6 x 6 x 2 in

Pueblo, 2012, Ink, Color Pencil, Acrylic, Frame 16 x 14 inCityscape_03, 2021,
Cardboard, graphite, acrylic on MDF board
42 x 32 in

Small Cityscapes, 2017 - 2022
Cardboard, graphite, gatorboard
26 x 26 inSilver Cloud, 2022, Safety pins, 26 x 24 x 20 inBlack Cloud, 2022, Black safety pins, 12 x 19 x 17 inWRITINGSGeorges Braque said, “I do not believe in any one thing. I do not believe in things. I believe in theirrelationship, in their circumstances. Circumstances bestow reality on things, in Zen it is said–
Reality is not this, it is the fact of being this. This is a paper knife, but if I use it as a shoehorn, it
becomes a shoehorn.”
Bauhaus and Dadaism spoke to the wounded youth in post-World War II Japan and I was not an
exception. I grew up learning from the Gutai Group and observing them in my formative years inJapan. Serpent, my 70’ long safety pin sculptures wrapped like a sinuous Gutai around a tree. At
the same time learning these philosophies from classes taught in the Bauhaus curriculum became asolid core for my way of thinking and art-making.
Through my artwork, I am searching for another vision and way of thinking for my life in the space
between installation works, sculptures and wall works. For forty years I have used overlooked objects
from our daily life as my media. Discarded materials are important to me because of environmental
issues and also as a reflection of my current life. My choice of materials and interpretation are
influenced by the differences that I experience between life in America and in Japan, where I grew
up. I often use repetition and aim to create energy and chaos, within quiet stillness.
As I enter this last phase of my life, I yearn to make large and small scale works that will have alasting presence. I’ve made more than thirty maquettes, some that I hope to enlarge and fabricate
in permanent recycled materials so that people actually walk through them.
My works are personal; I work in large and small scales in belief of intimacy. They are my visual
diaries.
— Tamiko Kawata, 2014

Object Descriptions
Embracewere at Kawata’s disposal. Each drawing reflects
Embrace marks Kawata’s first sculptural work in her
Kawata’s mood, environment, and circumstances, in“diamond” construction system of interlocking
her daily struggle to care for her husband. Some aresafety pins. Taking on a textile-like quality, Kawata
light and sharp, while others are hazy and melancholhas woven a flat structure and brought its two corners
ic: each of them emotionally loaded as per Kawata’s
together, playing with form to invoke the gesture ofhighly expressive hand.
a physical embrace. Kawata’s manipulation of metal
alchemically instills in a cold, static material a sense Wall_01, Wall_02
of dynamic and animistic warmth.
Kawata’s Wall drawings take inspiration from several meaningful environments in the artist’s global
Ascending
travels. Most directly, they mimic the curved edges
The strong vertical emphasis of Ascending is accenof adobe homes of Santa Fe, New Mexico. But moretuated by its material construction: as it hangs, theintimately, they reference Kawata’s favorite mountainelectric-treated black steel safety pins that begin thein the Japanese Northern Alps. As an inveterate hikpiece focus the eye upwards, while the nickel-plateder, Kawata admired a particular mountain pass ofsafety pins draw the eye in a spiral down its body.
Byobou Iwa, or the steep wall-like “screen rock,” that
The elegant slenderness of this hanging sculpture ismarked the entrance to the Alps’ high mountains
owed to a tight design of closely-fastened pins. The
about 3,190 meters in altitude and Japan’s most diffiscale of this work, as with much of Kawata’s sculpcult range to climb. From her teenage to college years,
ture, establishes a sense of perspective that imparts a
Kawata frequently sought solitude from the chaotic
sense of smallness in the viewer’s own body.
city by escaping on expeditions to the mountains. In
one year, Kawata spent 100 days in the mountains,
December, November, June, April_01
much to the dismay of her family. She describes thisIn 2016, Kawata took on the sole caretaking of herparticular wall of the mountain almost as the end of
husband Ian, who was diagnosed with Lewy Bodya pilgrimage: a hiker walks two hours along a river,dementia, an aggressive brain disease related tolush with vegetation and trees, and then encounters
Alzheimer’s. As a result, she could no longer work
the soaring vertical “screen rock” wall, at a high alin her studio and had limited time to devote to her
titude where all mountain greenery stops growing.
practice. Inspired by popular “one drawing a day”
This series of drawings typifies Kawata’s keen sense
exercises, Kawata endeavored to produce two drawingsof observation throughout her practice, in which ana month; as much as she could manage with her daily
external and environmental mindfulness is drawn incommitments to family. In a total of 24 drawings
and becomes part of the “internal world” of Kawata’s
corresponding to the months of the year, the series
visual language..
explores Kawata’s technical interests with paper,
pushing the boundaries of the medium even into Blue Cloud, Red Cloud
collage and carving. With a sculptural sensibility, several
Kawata’s Cloud series is a limited body of work thatdrawings experiment texture by scratching, carving,
explores finding a sense of softness in a sharp, cold
and layering, mainly the jewelry-making tools thatmaterial. Red and Blue Cloud also demonstrate

Kawata’s commitment to multimedia experimentadrapes with a gossamer quality like a finely-wovention. After taking a paper-making course, the artist
silk cloth. Carefully suspended, the sculpture’s ripfilled a large plastic vessel with abaca paper pulp, aples emphasize its own lightness and movement.
native Philippine plant in the banana family. She thenSoaring over 10-feet tall, the work is Kawata’s earliest
submerged safety-pin nest structures into the paper
sculptural piece on view. Its vertical emphasis andsubstrate, some pulps with red and blue paper dye,the upwards gaze of the viewer mimics the motion soothers remaining neutral. After setting, Kawata treatedoften done out in Kawata’s nature hikes: craning thethe nests with wax, glue, or glitter, and watched theneck up at trees and mountains, all the while bearing
pins bleed a rusted hue into the paper medium upon
witness to the smallness and fragility of the self.
their reaction to liquid. After exhibiting the individual nests in 1999 individually as “flowers,” she fasted Crystal Box
them together with wire into “clouds,” each sculpture
The work Crystal Box is, like Embrace, constructedwith its own sense of buoyancy and lift.
in the “diamond” system of overlapping rhombusesof interlocking safety pins. At the time that Kawata
Flow of Life_05
developed this technique of working, she was proTamiko Kawata’s site-specific pantyhose installations
ducing jewelry professionally for living. Operatingprobe issues of gender and environmental waste:with this same visual vocabulary, the work’s many
inspired by the attention given to women’s legs insquare surfaces mimics the facets of a diamond.
America, her waterfalls of used pantyhose reinterUsing the largest size of safety pins, Crystal Box is apret a symbolic yet disposable everyday material. She
glimmering exercise in sculptural evocation: of prebegan collecting used pantyhose from her friends
ciousness implied by modest and unadorned means.
and neighbors in 2000 for the first iteration of her
Passing Life series, transforming their used, inherit- Rhythmed, and would-be discarded stockings into a nylon
The slender zip of cardboard comprising Rhythmmosaic that seems to flow down the walls of theis one portion of a larger site-specific installation ingallery. The title references the concept of nagare in2011 which took shape over a whole wall in multiJapanese, or visualizing the flow of life as if a runningple stripes of cardboard, varying in length, thickness,stream which joins a larger body of water, or oceanand color. The piece signifies one bar of sheet music,of ancestral lineage. For Kawata, the pulls, pills, andor when seen in multiple, the lines of a sound wave,
runs found throughout her pantyhose installations
and in many ways connects to Kawata’s mathematicalare evidence of the passage of time, as well as the lived
approach to production as inherited from her father’s
experiences of the women who once wore them.
research. The artist’s experiments in cardboard began with the desire to see the material’s internal arVertical Wave
chitecture. From the cuts and scores of corrugated
In the language of textile, Vertical Wave is perhaps
cross-sections, Kawata reveals the velvety interior
Kawata’s simplest construction and yet her mostscaffolding of this everyday material, and with it, itsmonumental safety pin sculptural work to date.
unexpected beauty and complexity.
Delicate in its single-layer chain link, Vertical WavePermutation Seven
Harnessing rust as an artistic material, instead of
Kawata’s structural approach to the safety pin often
working against the natural forces, Kawata collaborates
connects to traditional processes; in some instancwith the effects of elements as well as the inevitable
es its additive potential functions like clay. In thispassage of time upon metal.
case, safety pins are not treated as finished products in themselves, but are used as a “paint.” The A Childwall-mounted sculptural work Permutation Seven
The piece A Child uniquely features a slight patina
hangs with a painterly quality, resembling a color
on the nickel of its pins. Instead of a complete rust,field painting or connecting with the minimalist
the work’s brief oxidation gives off a warm, golden
grid. As with much of her practice, Kawata’s works
finish.
resonate with the sensibilities of past art historicalmovements, but in a unique vernacular couching her Bamboo Shootclever cultural and environmental commentary. Her
Bamboo Shoot is evocative of its environmental counhighly-personal work also often nods to biographicalterpart: the young sprouts of bamboo stalks which
details: in this case, the title Permutation refers to herrise like spires from the earth. Kawata’s visual lexicon
father’s work in mathematical theories of probability
continues to be informed by Kawata’s impressions
and permutation, which she also considers a creativeof her surroundings, here namely her encounterspursuit. Permutation Seven is created with number 0of Japan’s bamboo forests, where she walked for her
pins, nearly the smallest size of safety pins commerdaily commute for many years.
cially available, interlocking into a grid that could
stretch on into infinity.
Three Wings, Three Small Wings
Three, for Kawata, was just the right number ofBreathing I
wings to balance these small sculptures: two was too
Breathing I features what Kawata calls “hair” at its
few, four did not create the desired visual movement.
top, hanging whimsically and imparting a lively playConsistent in all of the artist’s sculptural works,
fulness to the work.
though perhaps most evident in Three Wings, Kawata must precisely calculate the size and number ofCore to Kawata’s practice is the act of repetition:
safety pins in each layer of work in order to achieve
the repetitive act of construction and linkage inthe seamless desired form. Here particularly, theher practice, as well as a repetition of forms aimed atsmall circumference of the “wings’’ requires close,
creating energy and visual chaos. Kawata’s series oftight assemblage and careful attention to planning.
aggregate standing sculptures take on the appearance
For Kawata, producing sculpture is just as much aof cacti or bamboo shoots. The voluminous forms
creative act as it is a mathematical act: a synthesis ofvary in width as well as hue: experimenting with thelogic and freedom.
process of oxidation, Kawata often leaves her safety
pin sculptures outside on her porch. The thought- Pueblo
fully-timed exposure to the elements can impart
Having lived in the Northeast for much of her
a deep burgundy rust or a slight golden tarnish.
American life, Kawata’s first encounters with theSouthwest, especially its sweeping deserts and cultural
singular to the many, or the individual to the infinite.
identity, were compelling. Kawata traveled to Santa
Fe every summer with her daughter, and while there Black Cloud
felt a very modern sensibility in ancestral Puebloan
Black Cloud is the smallest of Kawata’s Cloud series
dwellings. The architecture of adobe Pueblo homes,of works. It utilizes difficult-to-find black safety pinswith their earthen walls, gentle curves, and squarefrom Japan, which Kawata notes are of a superior
ports have inspired a series of work by Kawata,
quality as compared to American safety pins. The
including this drawing with its cut, multilayered
structure mimics organic aggregate forms, such as
surface and warm palette. Her affinity for the work
coral, anemones, hives, or flower clusters.
of Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida also informs
Pueblo, especially his similarly collaged three-dimen- Cityscape_03
sional drawings. Kawata’s Pueblo series also includes
As a mindful observer of her environment, Kawata
large-scale drawings and safety pin installations inharnesses the architectural qualities of cardboard to
2004, working within the same visual cues.
capture the undulating urban skyline and the visualvariety of Manhattan skyscrapers. Corrugated sheets
Small Cityscapesof cardboard, to Kawata, echo the scaffolding used in
A series of 16 individual pieces, Small Cityscapes nods
and around modern buildings. The large scale wall
to the verticality and scaffolding of Kawata’s urban
piece Cityscape_03—with its muted palette mirrorlandscape. For much of her cardboard constructions,ing New York City’s grays, silvers, and browns—is a
the artist utilizes laser-cutting techniques to achieve
whimsical study of urban landscapes, constructed inclean and precise edges. This often requires careful
unexpected yet symbolic materials.
calibration and calculations for the laser cutter
machines to follow. In her small cityscape studies,
Kawata centers the huge variety possible in sheets ofcorrugated cardboard. In the language of modernist
stripe or grid paintings, their composition highlights
the lace-like delicacy as well as strength and presenceof the material.
Silver Cloud
Silver Cloud is a large-scale accumulation of Kawata’s
nested safety pin structures. The entire Cloud series,
though especially evident in this work, is an exploration of finding softness in a sharp, cold material.
Its lift and lightness, as well as the clean nickel of
its body denote the silvery-white mist of a twisting
cloud. In its accumulation, the linked pins speak to
the nature of aggregation: the relationship of thePress Release
It happened to be…
I was born female.
I was born in Kobe Japan, 1936.
I grew up in Tokyo from 5 years old.
I chose…
to become an artist.
to live in New York City in 1962.
to become an American citizen in 2004.
Now I am an “American, born in Japan.”
I am a human being who lives on the earth with all the people on the earth.
— Tamiko Kawata
Alison Bradley Projects is pleased to announce TAMIKO KAWATA, a solo-presentation of groundbreaking
sculpture, works on paper, and site-specific installation defining the artist’s trajectory over six decades. On view
from December 13th, the exhibition runs until February 24th, with an artist reception on January 11, 2024.
New York-based artist Tamiko Kawata (b. Kobe, 1936) came of age in postwar Japan: a climate in which resistanceto predominant gender roles and class hierarchies of the era became core to both her personal and professional
mission. She received her BA in Sculpture at the University of Tsukuba / Tokyo University of Education,
developing a practice conceptually informed by the avant-garde aesthetic philosophies and movements of the
post-war period, including Dadaism, Bauhaus, and Gutai, particularly in their use of unconventional and sociallysymbolic media. After graduating in 1959, Kawata worked as an artist-designer with Kagami Crystal Glass Worksin Tokyo and, as the company’s first woman designer, earned the second highest salary in the nation, and thehighest national women’s salary at age 23. In 1961, the artist immigrated to the United States and settled in New
York City in 1962, working as the arts and crafts curator of the Japan External Trade Organization.
Kawata’s artistic practice functions for her as a “visual diary,” operating through the material subtleties of her
diasporic experience. When she first immigrated to the United States, for example, she found American clothes
much too long for her slight frame and adjusted them with safety pins, uncommon in Japan at the time. With her
signature wit and resourcefulness, Kawata developed a successful safety wpin jewelry collection. Its 1973 debut
in the New York Times led to instantaneous notoriety with a cultured clientele. In 1978, she exhibited her firstsafety pin sculpture, a practice she continues today.

Displacing the safety pin from its usual quotidian context and thereby imbuing it with new aesthetic meaning, theartist weaves intricate chain link into voluminous forms—inspired by bamboo shoots, nests, and mountains—that
are both biomorphic and geometric. With the sensibilities of textile, the artist’s works align with the sculptures of
Eduardo Chillida or the explosive works of Eva Hesse, while cleverly responding to the minimalist grids of Agnes
Martin and Sol Lewit. Some works resonate a distinctively Japanese aesthetic—a traditional bamboo basket
weave—yet in a wholly non-traditional material. Skillfully experimenting with the textural qualities of metal andthoughtfully-timed exposure to the elements, Kawata achieves a range of tones, from a pristine nickel, to a golden
tarnish, to a rich rust.
The artist is well known for working in a range of mediums—particularly everyday materials—including intricate
drawings to cardboard sculpture to pantyhose installation, which will be on view. The exhibition demonstrates
Kawata’s rigorous material experimentation as well as her maverick spirit: an artist committed to both personal
and aesthetic freedom.
Kawata’s work has been the subject of many solo and group exhibitions. Key institutional holdings include
Honolulu Contemporary Art Museum (Honolulu, Hawaii), Lafcadio Hearn/Yakumo Koizumi Art Museum(Matsue, Japan), Museum for Arts & Design/MAD Museum (New York, NY), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts(Montreal, Canada), LongHouse Reserve Permanent Collection, (East Hampton, NY), and PREC Institute(Tokyo, Japan) among others.

SITE-SPECIFIC WORKThroughout Kawata’s career, in addition to intimate sculpture, the artist has worked with space andcontext to create a large body of site-specific and locationally-responsive works. The following pages
compile a small selection of commissioned site-specific projects in Kawata’s signature styles and materials.

Meditation Circle, 1999, 60 safety oin spiral sculptures with pine bark, 6 in to 46 in, LongHouse, East Hampton, NY
Featured in Transformations, 1999, a large scale outdoor installations using the Reserve’s trees and ground & 35 indoor works onwalls and floor at the LongHouse Reserve, East Hampton, NY.

Meditation Circle, 1999, detail

Two Serpents, 1999, safety pin, tree, 30 ft x 6 in & 40 ft, LongHouse, East Hampton, NY

Quiet Room, 2014, paper, mirror, wood, cigarette butts, paint, 30 x 30 x 30 ft, Kotska Gallery, MeetFactory, Prague, Czech RepublicQuiet Room, 2014, installation image

Quiet Room, 2014, installation image

Rain Forest-2, 2010, safety pins, “American Academy for Arts & Letters: Invitational Exhibition for Paintings and Sculptures 2015,”
American Academy for Arts and Letters, New York, NY

Rainforest-2, 2010, detail image

Flow of Life / Passing Life Series - 4, 2016, used pantyhose, 10 x 15 x 14 ft, Adelphi University Center Gallery, Garden City, NYFlow of Life / Passing Life Series - 4, 2016, detail image from behindNewsday Falls, 2011, “Environmental Concerns: Earth Matters: Newsday Fall & Newsday Sea Urchins,”Heckscher Museum of Art,
Huntington, NY

Newsday Falls, 2011, five weeks of Long Island’s
daily newspaper, 10 x 13 x 5 ft

Secret Devourer, 2006, shredder with shredded poems & messages on paper, 35 x 26 x 20 in, Islip Art Museum,Long Island, NY

Secret Devourer, 2006, installation view

Sea Urchins, 2008, Collected Shredded Paper from Offices, Bubble Wrap
26 x 14 in, Office Show, Rockland Center for the Arts (RoCA), Rockland County, NYSea Urchins, 2008, detail image

Rhythm, 2011, found cardboard, pins, 108 x 180 x 2.5 in, EFA Office Gallery, New York, NY

Rhythm, 2011, detail imageCV
EDUCATION
BA
Sculpture, Tokyo University of Education (Tsukuba University), Tokyo, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
Year
Title, Venue, Location
2023“Beyond Line, Beyond Edge”, Pollock Gallery, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
2018“Permutation”, Garvey Simon Gallery, New York, NY
2016“Flow of Life/Nagare”: Ruth S. Harley University Center Gallery, Adelphi University, Garden City,
NY
2014“Quiet Room”: Karina Kottova curator, Kotska Gallery, MeetFactory, Prague, CZ
2012“Passage: Tamiko Kawata at 2012”, Kobalt Gallery, Provincetown, MA
2011“Tamiko Kawata 2011”, Muriel Guepin Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2002“Safety Pin Series: Recent & Collected Works”: Disjecta Gallery, Portland, OR
2001“Passing Life- One, Waterfalls”, Site-specific installation based on survey on accumulation of toilet
paper, The New York Times & Pantyhose, Florence Lynch Gallery, NY
1999“Transformations”, three large scale outdoor installations of Serpents, August Grove and Clusters
using the Reserve’s trees and ground & 35 indoor works on walls and floor. LongHouse Reserve, East
Hampton, NY
1998“Rain Forest,” site-specific installation for 45’x30’ space. It is a personal protest against nuclear 		
weapons and a memorial for the victims. Vibrant Gallery, NY
1996
Invitational exhibition: Installation for the Green Windows, SOHO 20 Gallery, NYC, curator: Jane
Ursula Harris
1991“Tamiko Kawata Exhibition”, Works on wall & on pedestal, Matsuya Gallery, Tokyo Japan
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022“Disquiet: Photography and Sculpture- Robert Palumbo/Tamiko Kawata”, Pamela Salisbury Gallery,
Hudson, NY“Women in Making”, Curator Masa Hosojima, WhiteBox, NY“Hand Work/Art” Charlotte Street Gallery, Kansas, MO
2021“Perfect Day: Art and Drug”, curators: Raul Zamudio and Juan Puntes, WhiteBox Chashama, NY
Search of Japan- Exploring East/West Arts & Design”, BrownGrotta Arts, Wilton, CT“Truth in the Face of Reality: Non-Objective Art in the 21st Century, New Show Featuring Rising
Stars of Abstract Art”, Robert Berry Gallery, Virtual Show, NY“Midtown”, curated by Deric Carner: Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY

2020
2017
2016
2015

2014
2012
2011
2010
2001
2000

1999
1998
1997
1996

“Aesthetics in the Political: Fifteen New York Japanese Women Artists,” Curator: Kyoko Sato andJuan Puntes, White Box Harlem, NY NY“Outdoor Sculpture Biennial 2017-2018”: Adelphi University, Garden City, NY“Altered States: Seven Artists Exhibition,” Hewitt Gallery of Arts, Marymount Manhattan College,
NY“American Academy for Arts & Letters: Invitational Exhibition for Paintings and Sculptures 2015,”
showing Passing Life- Four and pastel drawings. American Academy for Arts and Letters, NY“New Ways of Seeing: Cultural Hybridity and Aesthetic Liberty,” Eileen Jeng curator, Dorsky 		
Gallery, NY“Interpreting Pins & Needles”: Suzan Shutan curator, Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT“Japanese Contemporary Paper Art,” Art Center ALTERA/Amateras, Sofia, Bulgaria“Environmental Concerns: Earth Matters: Newsday Fall Installation and the Sea Urchins,” with 5
weeks of accumulation of the Long Island of daily paper, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington,
NY“American Academy for Arts & Letters: Invitational Exhibition for Paintings and Sculptures 2015,”
Installation” Permutation- Two” “Rain Forest- 2,” American Academy for Arts and Letters, New
York, NY
“Sixteen Asian American Artists” showing “Permutation- One,” Staller Center for the Arts, 		University Art Gallery, Stony Brook State University of New York, Stony Brook NY“August Grove for Four Seasons: Nature of Fiber,” outdoor installation, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park,
Cazenovia, NY“Elements 2000,” Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY“As If Alive: Animate Sculpture” New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ“TRANSFORMATIONS,” OMNI Gallery, Uniondale NY“Generations II: A Survey of Women Artists at the Millennium,” A.I.R. Gallery, NYC“Stillness Within,” three-artist exhibition, Elsa Mott Ives Gallery/YWCA, NYC“Contemporary Arts of New York State,” New York State Museum, Albany, NY“A.I.R. Third Biennial Exhibition,” A.I.R. Gallery, NY“Staten Island Biennial Exhibition,” Staten Island Institute of Arts & Science Museum, SI, NY“Black & Yellow,” Vibrant Gallery, NYC“Women Show III,” Bullet Space, NYC“Poetics of the Edge/Two Artists,” Grace Gallery, New York Technical College, CUNY, Brooklyn, NY“Order System Structure,” NYFA Award Exhibition: RCCA Art Center, Rensselaer County Council
for the Arts, Troy NY“Ephemeral Metal: Interlock-Interweave,” Elsa Mott Ives Gallery/YWCA, NYC“Permutations,” MMC Gallery, Marymount Manhattan College, NYC

1991
1986
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1978

“Historical Sources: New Visions in Contemporary Metalsmithing,” Memorial Art Gallery of the
University of Rochester, Rochester, NY“Fiber R/Evolution International Exhibition: showing Vertical Wave” Two years Traveling Exhibitionof Milwaukee Art Museum and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, John Porter Retzer, Florence
Horn Retzer and Mary Jane Jacob curators, Milwaukee WI“Works of Women,” UNESCO Art Committee, Paris, France“Small Works International: by Jack Lenor Larsen & Mildred Constantine curators, British Craft
Centre, London, England

Grants, Fellowships & Residencies
2023
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency grant to support “Beyond Edge. Beyond Surface
Exhibition”for Pollock Gallery: Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
2020
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency grant to support“Aesthetics in the Political: Fifteen New York Japanese Women Artists,” White Box Harlem, NY”
2015
American Academy for Arts and Letters: 2015 Purchase Award
2014
Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency grant to support “Quiet Room” Exhibition , New
York, NY
MeetFactory Art Foundation Award for “Solo Show and Residency,” Prague, Czech
2012
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY: Purchase Award from Harvest Exhibition
2006
Pollock/Krasner Foundation Grant, NY, NY
2005
NYFA Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts 2005 Grant for Gregory Millard Fellow NY, NY
2004
Serie Project for Screen Printmaking: Austin, TX
2002
McDowell Art Colony Residency Award, Petersborough, NH
2001
Yaddo, Louise Bourgeois Residency Award for a Sculptor
NYFA Grant, New York Foundation for the Arts, NY, NY
2000
CANYS Grant for New Project: Craft Alliance of New York State ​Blue Mountain Center for the Arts
Craft Alliance New York State Grant for New Project: NY
1999
Edward Albee Art Residency: Montauk, NY
1998
Ruth Chenven Foundation Grant for New Project
1997
The Millay Colony for the Arts
ESCA Grant for New Project: Empire State Craft Alliance of New York State
1991
ESCA Grant for New Project: Empire State Craft Alliance of New York State
Public Collections
2020
Helene Falcon Art Collection, Boston, MA
2016
Honolulu Contemporary Art Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
2013
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY

2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2002
1999
1991
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1978

PREC Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Ishiguro Art Collection: Tokyo, Japan
Francine D’Olimpio, Kobalt Gallery, Provincetown, MA
LongHouse Reserve: Jack Lenor Larsen Collection, East Hampton, NY
Ishiguro Art Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Lafcadio Hearn/Yakumo Koizumi Art Museum, Matsue, Japan
Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada
Williamsburg Art and Historical Center, Brooklyn, NY
Philip & Shelley Aarons Art Collection, LI, NY
DM Contemporary Art Gallery for Permanent Collection, LI, NY
Museum for Arts & Design/MAD Museum, NY, NY 2004
Jack Lenor Larsen Private Collection, New York, NY
Yusuke Aida Collection, Tokyo, Japan
LongHouse Reserve Permanent Collection, East Hampton, NY
Lloyd Catsen Collection, San Francisco, CA
Jack Lenor Larsen, private collection, New York, NY
Yusuke Aida Collection, Tokyo, Japan
Davis Brody Bond, Architects, New York, NY
PREC Institute, Tokyo, Japan
Buenno Premesela Art Collection, Amsterdam, Holland

Publications & Reviews
2012
Review by Masaaki Noda on Gekkan Gallery January issue in Japan
Inclusion of “Newsday Fall” works in publication of “To Life: ECO ART in pursuit of
Sustainable planet,” by Andrew Brown, Hudson and Thames publisher
Book: 500 Paper Projects 2012: curated by Gene McHugh, New York, NY
2011
Catalog: Tamiko Kawata ”Beyond Lines/Beyond Surface,” Kentler International
Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
Catalog: “Japanese Contemporary Paper Art,” Art Center ALTERA, Daniela Todorova Curator,
sponsored by Embassy of Japan, Sofia, Bulgaria
Catalog: ”Transcendental Vision,” Anton Gallery/Celadon Inc, Monterey, CA
2008
Prints: “Office Space,” New Art Center, Elizabeth Duffy curator, Newtonville, MA
Catalog: Second Lives: REMIXING THE ORDINARY to INAUGURATE Museum of ARTS &DESIGN,” an opening exhibition at Columbus Circle location: curated by David McFadden,
Museum of Arts & Design, New York, NY
2006
Site Specific 2006: Karen Shaw curator for Islip Museum: Carriage House, East Islip, NY

2000	​Sculpture Magazine: May 2000 issue, FOCUS section
Catalog: As If Alive: Animate Sculpture by Sara Henry Corrington: Professor Drew University
Catalog: Nature of Fiber by Stone Quarry Hill Sculpture Park
New York Times: Long Island Section, Art Reviews by Helen A. Harrison

Exhibition Photography © Dario Lasagni
Courtesy of Alison Bradley Projects
Copyright of Alison Bradley Projects
526 W. 26th Street, Suite 814
New York, NY 10001