Make a sculpture

When I stand in front of a stone, the stone speaks to me

The voice of stone always has one word.

The stones don't tell us much

Her voice was so loud that it was drowned out by the sounds of the wind and insects.

A small voice is trying to tell you something powerfully

 

Taking human form Becoming a person with wings

Becoming a musician

Becoming a house and becoming a round stone

 

It seems that she was able to capture herself through the stones and achieve brilliant expression.

Make a sculpture

"In the beginning was the Word (Logos)." The opening of the Gospel of John in the Bible describes the Word of God. The fundamental principle is the Word of God. Language as we know it is one of the greatest man-made products created by humans. So how did people experience emotions and embody the principles of the world before language was born?

The cave paintings of Altamira vividly depict the primitive movements of living creatures. Also, Jomon pottery seems to have shaped the prayers born in daily life. In the primitive age, when culture still existed in emotions and prayers in daily life, the dialogue between nature and humans was expressed in form . Atsuya Tominaga's sculptures can be said to represent the dialogue of energy born from this primitive relationship between nature and humans.

When Atsuya Tominaga went to Italy to study sculpture, he had a new thought about what it means to make sculpture. Italy has a long history of sculpture, and the techniques are highly advanced. However, it has existed in a very unnatural way. Sculpture seeks technique, and technique is the goal. During the Roman Empire, the techniques cultivated to create the heads of powerful kings seemed to have lost their purpose in sculpting.

"What is sculpture?" Atsuya Tominaga was no longer able to understand what sculpture was. However, as a child he made mud balls in nature and felt a sense of connection with the object that was born in an instant. He felt a sense of emotion in an instant. He felt that this connection with a primitive material was the way of his own sculpture. He began to seriously carve out the energy of stone and put his own feelings into it.

The " Ninguen " series captures the human form. The spherical " Sphere " series. And the " House " series features people existing inside a house. All of his works are as if the inherent energy of stone has been refined and shaped. The words (logos) that stone speaks to us, and the words and feelings we speak to stone. This primitive communication with nature is evident in Atsuya Tominaga's sculptures.

"In the beginning was the word (logos)." The word (logos) that existed before language, something we have forgotten, can be felt in Atsuya Tominaga's sculptures. It is the innate sense of being present in nature. By living in symbiosis with stone and sculpting it, Atsuya Tominaga has refined this sense, and it can be said that he has arrived at his unique and primitive sculptural expression.

 

Atsuya Tominaga

Born in Osaka in 1961.
1984 Graduated from Kanazawa College of Art, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Sculpture
1986 Graduated from Kanazawa College of Art, Graduate School of Art and Crafts
1988: Winner of the Osaka Nakanoshima Greenway Sculpture Competition
1997-98: Stayed and created in Italy with the support of the Pola Art Foundation for overseas training. 2013: Won the Grand Prize at the 25th UBE Biennale (Yamaguchi).

Major solo exhibitions
2008 Ippodo NY (USA)
2015 Tokiwa Museum (Yamaguchi)
2017 Toyonaka City Cultural Arts Center (Osaka)
2024 Nagano Prefectural Museum of Art Art Lab

Main activities
2018 “Public Production 74” Fuchu Art Museum
2019 "Manazuru Town Stone Sculpture Festival" (Kanagawa)
2024 "Museum Name Stone Production" The Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka

Major group exhibitions
2021 "Universal Museum - Touch! A Great Exhibition of Touch" National Museum of Ethnology (Osaka)
2021 "Everyone Needs a Stone" Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum (Shizuoka)
2023 "Beautiful Books: Books and Prints from Yukawa Publishing" Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art Public Collection: Nagano Prefectural Museum of Art, Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Tokiwa Museum (Yamaguchi), Asago Art Museum (Hyogo), LongHouse Reserve (NY)

Major solo exhibitions at Ippodo
1994 Atagoyama Gallery
1997 Zakurozaka Gallery Ippodo
2002 Ginza Ippodo Salon