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Sculpture Junkie

Figurative Sculptor Hiro Kiyoshima

Hironori (Hiro) Kiyoshima is a figurative sculptor based in Kumamoto, Japan. He has extensive formal training, including an MFA; and he is an art professor of Sojo University. From this relatively quiet part of the world, from within the nondescript studio building where he works, Hiro creates supremely vivid work. The vitality that radiates from his figures flows from a style that deftly subsumes some of the great masters of both western and Japanese sculpture—easily avoiding the pitfalls of ironic appropriation or homage—while maintaining a perspective that is thoroughly contemporary.

Sculpture Junkie - Hiro Kiyoshima

Artist Statement

Hironori (Hiro) Kiyoshima is a figurative sculptor based in Kumamoto, Japan. He has extensive formal training, including an MFA; and he is an art professor of Sojo University. From this relatively quiet part of the world, from within the nondescript studio building where he works, Hiro creates supremely vivid work. The vitality that radiates from his figures flows from a style that deftly subsumes some of the great masters of both western and Japanese sculpture—easily avoiding the pitfalls of ironic appropriation or homage—while maintaining a perspective that is thoroughly contemporary.
It is passion more than anything that animates Hiro’s work. His obvious technical proficiency and ability to intertwine artistic styles from disparate eras and regions captures the eye of the beholder, but it is the work’s passion that captures all the rest. The visceral, lasting impression produced by his art may be its most distinctive feature.
Initially, Hiro composes all of his pieces from clay, then he casts them in either bronze or resin. To the latter he applies acrylic paint. He has embraced sculpture’s essential power as an art form—it’s three-dimensionality and ability to capture mass and movement—as a means for exploring human emotion, or broadly speaking, the “human condition.”
“When people are suffering, they express their pain and sometimes the deepest parts of themselves,” says Hiro. “I am especially interested in vulnerable people—what their lives are like, what they’re feeling at certain moments. At times this makes my work seem tortured, but more than anything, I try to make sculpture with strong individuality.”
Hiro cites Rodin as a major influence, because of his emphasis on individual character, as revealed through physical features. Hiro’s work is also influenced by Haniwa, an ancient form of Japanese sculpture (3rd to 6th century AD). Haniwa was composed primarily of terracotta warrior figures, made for ritual use and buried with the dead or arranged around gravesites, to protect the deceased in the afterlife.
Time and again we see in Hiro Kawabata’s sculpture how technique and a deep understanding of art history are synthesized inventively, and transformed into vehicles for conveying emotion, humanity, turmoil—the whole gamut of life, death, and beyond.
In his new show, Hiro shows to the world that “Life and death” of human beings through the postures of Nijinsky. Nijinsky was a famous legendary Russian dancer. But his working life was only few years. Because of his mental condition deteriorated. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1919 and committed to a mental asylum. For the next 30 years he was in and out of institutions, never dancing in public again. Hiro try to pursue the madness behind his talent. Hiro believes that “The candle is brightest before it goes out ” He shows us how the life goes on in case of Nijinsky this time.

Gallery 
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Curriculum vitae.

Hironori(Hiro), Kiyoshima

Education

1987-2009

  • Kagoshima University, Faculty of Art Education Art Teacher's Certificate.

  • Sojo University, Faculty of Art the Master's course Master of Fine Arts.

  • Sojo University, Faculty of Art Doctoral course. Ph. D.(Art)

Professional Experience

1994-2018

  • "ARC 2016-2017 International Salon awarded 2nd Prize".

  • “Kenmuon~ The Specter of the Amami forest” installed at Kaiun Sake brewing in Kagoshima pref.

  • “Boys and Girls Fencing relief” installed at Toa gakuen high school in Tokyo.

  • “The man of noble mind Isson statue” installed at Isson Tanaka memorial museum in Kagoshima.

  • "GCA Figure Sculpture competition awarded 3rd Prize" at GCA, NY. June 4th -to June11th 2015.

  • "ARC 2014-2015 International Salon Finalist".

  • “Black fertility goddess statue” installed at Kagoshima Bank Osaka branch entrance in Osaka.

  • Jury of "Japan Sculpture Association Exhibition" The National art center, Tokyo

  • "ARC 2012-2013 International Salon Finalist".

  • "Hakujitsu Association Selection" Exhibition at Matsuya Art Gallery, Ginza, Tokyo. July 26th to August 6th.

  • "GCA 4th Annual Sculpture competition Finalist”. Competition at GCA, NY. June 5th -to June10th 2011.

  • "The Japan Fine Art Exhibition" at The National Art Center Tokyo, Special prize

  • "The Japan Fine Art Exhibition" at The National Art Center Tokyo, Special prize

  • "Japan Sculpture Association Exhibition" at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, First prize

  • The Kagoshima Bank Cultural Foundation prize.

  • "Hakujitsu Association Exhibition" at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Associate Member Encouragement prize.

  • "South Japan Fine Arts Exhibition" at Kagoshima history data center, Excellent work prize.

  • "Hakujitsu Association Exhibition" at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Hakujitsu prize.

  • "Japan Sculpture Association Exhibition" at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Encouragement prize, continuity for 3 years.

  • Kagoshima Prefecture Art Exhibition, at Kagoshima Prefecture Museum, Encouragement prize.

Current Exhibitions

August 28,2019 - September 6,2019

The Artologist Gallery
Art Plaza, Level 4 Shangri-La Plaza, Main wing, Manila, Philippines 

(02)696 3244

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