Tomonari Hashimoto

Tomonari Hashimoto was born in 1990 in Wakayama Prefecture. He received his M.A. in Fine Arts, Crafts at Kanazawa College of Art and also holds Ph.D. in the same area of study. He is based in Shigaraki which is one of the oldest ceramic district in Japan. He grew up with sculptor father who created 1:1 scaled human sculpture made by plaster or bronze.

His focus on the creative process is more on the sculptor point of view. He creates artworks over 2 meter size often, to have a scale of the sculpture rather than ceramic piece. He hand-build (without wheels and shaving) and create a form of his sculpture which he calls he is creating a skin/layer of the soil. Through this primitive process of creating layer of soil and firing them, he is trying to glimpse the invisible existence. His creative process is almost like a monk that keeps questioning about himself to chase true nature of the things and way of existence. His work is in the collections of Victoria and Albert Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, LOEWE Foundation, KOREA Ceramic Foundation, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shigaraki, Japan.