Nagisa Shirai

Modern Ceramic Artist

Nagisa is based in the city of Kanazawa, northwest of Tokyo on the coast of the Sea of Japan.

Since 2021, she has been working on her Kotoeri series, using porcelain Japanese katakana characters to define and shape her pieces.

With her Kotoeri series, Nagisa is expressing how everyday thoughts and aimless words accumulate in the everyday objects around us. She has used katakana characters in partuclar as Japanese language in katakana is the hardest to convey meaning, suggesting that what is in a persons heart is difficult for others to understand.

Works

  • Colorful artistic sculptures made of small alphabet letter blocks stacked into rounded shapes on a white background.

    Proust

    Ceramic sculpture depicting eight perfume bottles, representing each of the eight emotions, that have fallen over together and become one.

    View
  • A large, oval-shaped sculpture made of pink and orange alphabet-shaped tiles arranged in a densely packed, textured surface.

    Hana Utsuke

    Ceramic sculpture of an empty vase portraying the expression of ‘Utsuke’ as the state of emptiness

    View
  • Colorful frame made of assorted plastic letters in pastel shades of purple, green, blue, and yellow, arranged in a square shape with a hollow center on a white background.

    Gakubuchi

    Ceramic sculpture of a picture frame made using ‘Tatara’ style molding techniques

    View
  • A mirror shaped like an ampersand, decorated with small pastel-colored alphabet-shaped beads in purple, blue, and turquoise.

    Tekagami

    Ceramic sculpture of a hand mirror made using ‘Tatara’ style molding techniques

    View
Black and white photo of a woman with shoulder-length hair, wearing a white shirt, looking thoughtfully to her left against a plain background.

Nagisa Shirai

Born in Nasu District, Tochigi Prefecture. After graduating from high school, she worked at a local company while attending pottery classes, where she got in touch with clay. In 2015, she enrolled in a ceramics vocational school in Aichi Prefecture, aspiring to become a ceramic artist.

After studying pottery for four years in Seto City, Aichi Prefecture, she trained for three years at the Kanazawa Utatsuyama Craft Studio, and now works from her home and studio in Kanazawa City.

Since 2021, she has been working on the Kotoeri series, using porcelain Japanese katakana characters to define and shape her pieces.

2017 Aichi Prefectural Seto Pottery Senior High School, Advanced Course
2019 Seto Ceramics and Glass Art Center
2022 Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo

Award history:
2017  Selected for the 57th Japan Craft Exhibition
2018  Selected for the 26th Tableware Grand Prize ;
2018  Second Prize at the 7th Soba Choko Art Competition ;
2019  Meitetsu Mza President's Award at the 76th Kanazawa City Crafts Exhibition ;
2021  Selected for the 54th Women's Ceramics Competition

Major exhibitions:

2018
Tou ISM 2018 in Yokohama (Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse)

2019
Art and Tableware in Daily Life (Isetan Shinjuku Store)
Fluid Feast: Sake Plate Collection Exhibition (Touch Ceramics, Hong Kong)
Favorite Shapes Exhibition (Gallery Sukiya, Aichi / '20', '22', '23)

2020
IKOMI 2020 (Toshin Mino Ceramic Art Museum, Gifu)
WHAAAAAT'S STUDIO OPENING Art Fair (Taiwan)
Solo Exhibition (gallery mus, Daikanyama)
Solo Exhibition (atelier & gallery creava, Kanazawa)

2021
KOGEI Art Fair KANAZAWA (Hyatt Centric Kanazawa / '22', '23', '24)
Rabbit Dragon Maun Exhibition (Takashimaya Osaka Store, Nihonbashi Main Store)

2022
Art Fair Tokyo 2022 (Tokyo International Forum)
Life with ART (SOGO Chiba store, SOGO Yokohama store, Seibu Akita store)
Two-person exhibition (Nagoya Mitsukoshi)
Contemporary Artist Tea Bowl Special (Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store / '23'24)
Sake Ware Exhibition (Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store / '23)

2023
Word Material Exhibition (YOD TOKYO, Tokyo)
Solo Exhibition (Enkou, Kanazawa)
ART FAIR (Seibu Ikebukuro Main Store)

2024
Reframing, vol.2 (YOD Gallery, Osaka)
INFINI - The Infinity of Materials - (A Lighthouse Kanata, Tokyo)
Enkou 15th Anniversary Exhibition (Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art)