NEW EXHIBITION

KAWANO SHOKO

July 31 – August 22, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, July 31, 5-7pm
Artist Demonstration: Saturday, August 1 at 2pm

We are pleased to present Kawano Shoko, the gallery’s second solo exhibition of work by Japanese bamboo artist Kawano Shoko, on view from July 31 through August 22. This exhibition arrives ten years after the artists first show at TAI Modern and follows upon his being awarded Japan’s Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2024.

Constructed from finely prepared bamboo strips, woven with the artist’s signature sukashi-ajiro (open twill plaiting), Kawano’s works emphasize organic form, openness, and the natural flexibility of bamboo. Space and rhythm are integral to each composition. Kawano frequently adds an exterior layer of carved, parallel bamboo plates to an open twill-plaited form, based on a technique learned from Hayakawa Shōkōsai V during the Living National Treasure workshops he led in 2006–07. Ten years after Kawano’s first solo presentation at TAI Modern, Kawano Shoko brings together a body of work grounded in centuries of craftsmanship while continuing to evolve its vocabulary into contemporary expression.

Originally aspiring to become a sculptor, Kawano found in bamboo the expressive possibilities of three-dimensional form while embracing the discipline and technical rigor of the Beppu bamboo tradition. Over the past thirty-eight years, he has developed a distinctive sculptural language that balances structural precision with remarkable lightness and fluidity.

Now, at sixty-eight, Kawano reflects on his practice from a new vantage point. As opportunities to teach and mentor younger artists have become an increasingly important part of his life, the transmission of knowledge has emerged alongside artistic production as a central concern. “I feel a sense of responsibility to pass on the skills I have cultivated over many years,” Kawano said. “I am touched by their pure passion and sensibility toward craftsmanship, and they provide me with fresh and valuable inspiration that cannot be replaced by technical skill alone.”

To learn more, click here.

 

PAST EXHIBITION 

Nakatomi Hajime

June 26 – July 25, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday, June 26, 5-7pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 27 at 2pm

We are pleased to present Nakatomi Hajime, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the US this summer. The exhibition brings together work from five series developed over more than two decades — Prism, Musubi, Auspicious 8, Frill, and FLY — work defined by a single animating question: what does it mean for something not to look like bamboo? Rather than emphasizing material qualities or classical techniques and forms, Nakatomi embraces this paradoxical inquiry. His aim is to express the beauty of bamboo through colors, shapes, sizes, and materials not typically found in bamboo art. The most recent works in the exhibition combine bamboo with other materials, such as gold.

“Many people who see my work murmur, ‘Is this really bamboo?’” Nakatomi has written. “That is because I create my pieces so that they do not look like bamboo. Yet, such small reactions cast a faint light on the path I am taking — they give me the conviction that a new form of bamboo art is being born here.”

Nakatomi came to bamboo art by way of an unlikely path. Raised in Osaka and educated at Waseda University in Tokyo, where he studied business and commerce, he had no prior relationship with art until an interest in ceramics led him to the university art club. A large photograph of Flame, a 1957 bamboo sculpture by master Shono Shounsai, encountered by chance at a Tokyo department store, set him on an entirely new course.

In the spring of 2000, Nakatomi entered the bamboo craft training center in Beppu, Kyushu, one of Japan’s foremost centers of bamboo production. After completing his training, he was introduced to Honda Syoryu, a celebrated bamboo sculptor. Nakatomi served as Honda’s assistant for three years, an experience he has described as transformative not for its technical instruction, but for the spiritual insight it offered into the nature of artistic creation.

We have represented Nakatomi since 2002. This exhibition marks the first time the gallery has devoted a full solo presentation to him. An opening reception will be held Friday, June 26 from 5 to 7pm, followed by an artist talk on Saturday, June 27 at 2pm. The exhibition runs through July 25, 2026.

To learn more, click here.

 

About the Gallery

TAI Gallery was created by Robert T. Coffland, a leading expert in Japanese bamboo arts in the West, who began sourcing works from contemporary masters in Japan. The gallery moved from the founder’s home to a gallery space on Canyon Road, then to its current location in the Santa Fe Railyard in 2006.

Margo Thoma purchased the gallery in 2014 and merged it with her contemporary American art gallery, Eight Modern. Rebranded as TAI Modern, Thoma and renowned bamboo expert, Koichiro Okada, continue Coffland’s mission of building museum-quality collections.

Thoma supports and promotes bamboo art in the West by serving as an advisor to Western collectors and institutions, facilitating public demonstrations, and curating bamboo art exhibitions. She is a tireless collaborator and ally with and for senior artists across Japan, and sponsors aspiring bamboo artists to participate in national competitions. She has written essays for exhibition catalogs both in the U.S. and Japan and is a frequent public speaker on bamboo art.

Works by TAI Modern artists have been placed in some of the country’s most prestigious institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Mint Museum of North Carolina; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Denver Art Museum; Museum of Art and Design; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco.