The history of glass art in Japan is a relatively youthful one. Yet this reality is hardly a bane but a blessing for contemporary glass artists such as Niyoko Ikuta (b. 1953), who are not shackled by the shadows of tradition and thus, are free to push their creative boundaries to the limits.

Regarded as one of the leading figures in Japanese glass art, Ikuta has enraptured collectors and museums the world over for her spiraling glass sculptures that are imbued with a dynamic energy that resembles a graceful bird in flight.

Ikuta started making glass sculptures in the early 1980s. Fascinated by the ability of light to reflect and refract while passing through broken sections of plate glass, the Kyoto-based artist began making pieces that layers and bend laminated glass sheets into highly geometric abstract sculptures of breathtaking beauty and fluidity. In her own words:

I am captivated by the complexity of light as it reflects, refracts, and passes through broken cross sections of plate glass … My motifs are derived from feelings of gentleness and harshness, fear, limitless expansion experienced through contact with nature, images from music, ethnic conflict, the heart affected by joy and anger, and prayer. In creating my pieces it is like imagining an architectural space when viewing blueprints, deciding on an image by reading into the intentions of the architect, or imbuing a space with dynamic energy to bring it to life.

Ikuta’s works have been collected by institutions worldwide including the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Corning Museum of Glass in the U.S.

Video

A short video clip showing the dynamic energy of Ikuta’s glass sculptures

Selected Works of Niyoko Ikuta