Nakatomi Hajime, FLY: Trio, 2024, madake bamboo, rattan, 23.75 x 25.00 x 15.25 in. Image by Minamoto Tadayuki

Nakatomi Hajime
Closing Saturday, July 25, 2026
1601 Paseo de Peralta, Sante Fe, NM

Don’t miss your final chance to see Nakatomi Hajime, the artist’s first solo exhibition in the United States, at TAI Modern before it closes on Saturday, July 25. Bringing 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.

Experience this landmark exhibition before it comes to a close!

To learn more and view the online catalog, click here.