Beschreibung:

Property from an East Coast Collection Yoichi Ohira Unique "Rosso e Nero" vase from the "Polvere" series 2001 Hand-blown glass canes with powder inserts, polished surface. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm) high Executed by Livio Serena, master blower, and Giacomo Barbini, master cutter and grinder, Anfora, Murano, Italy. Underside incised with artist's cipher and Yoichi Ohira/m° L. Serena/m° G. Barbini/1 / 1 unico/Thursday 14-06-2001/murano.
Provenance Odetto Lastra, Union City, New Jersey Barry Friedman, Ltd., New York Exhibited "Canti del Cuore," Fine Art Salon, Isetan, Tokyo, 2001 "Yoichi Ohira: A Retrospective Exhibition," Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, 2002 Literature Rosa Barovier Mentasti, William Warmus and Suzanne Frantz, Yoichi Ohira: A Phenomenon in Glass, exh. cat., Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, 2002, illustrated pp. 271, 386 Catalogue Essay Glass art – hard, fragile, cold, and often heavy – is not usually designed to be handled. Yoichi Ohira’s luminous blown glass vessels, however, offer an exception to this trend. They are small and light enough to be turned in one’s hands like a Wunderkammer specimen, inviting the viewer to admire his abstracted design vocabulary of gemstones, polished ivory, veined rocks, shimmering water, agate, moss, and lichens. Ohira has been compared to Emile Gallé for his ability to emulate the natural world in glass. Comparisons may also be drawn to Jean Dunand’s bronze vessels, Japanese rokusho patina, and Otto Natzler’s volcanic glazes – a wide range of media to be translated into glass. Yoichi Ohira graduated from the Kuwasawa Design School, Tokyo, in 1969. Shortly thereafter he took up a glassblowing apprenticeship at the Kagami Crystal Company, Ltd. In 1973 Ohira moved to Venice to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti; he graduated in 1978, earning the highest possible grade for his thesis, The Aesthetics of Glass. In the late 1980s Ohira began collaborating with Murano glassmakers, earning the “Premio Selezione” of the Premio Murano in 1987. Collaboration has always been central to Ohira’s practice; he has written, "If I might compare myself to a composer...I could then compare Murano glassmakers to singers or instrumentalists. Who in the music world would erase the performers' names? Thus, my pieces in all fairness bear, in addition to my signature, the names of those who carried out my instructions: the glassblower and glasscarver, with the date and the place the piece was made." Read More Artist Bio Yoichi Ohira Japanese • 1946 Glass art – hard, fragile, cold and often heavy – is not typically designed to be handled. Yoichi Ohira's luminous blown glass vessels, however, offer an exception to this trend. They are small and light enough to be turned in one's hands like a Wunderkammer specimen, inviting the viewer to admire his abstracted design vocabulary of gemstones, polished ivory, veined rocks, shimmering water, agate, moss and lichens. Ohira has been compared to Emile Gallé for his ability to emulate the natural world in glass. Comparisons may also be drawn to Jean Dunand's bronze vessels, Japanese rokusho patina and Otto Natzler's volcanic glazes – an impressive range of media to be translated into glass. Yoichi Ohira graduated from the Kuwasawa Design School, Tokyo in 1969. Shortly thereafter he took up a glassblowing apprenticeship at the Kagami Crystal Company, Ltd. In 1973 Ohira moved to Venice to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti; he graduated in 1978 earning the highest possible grade for his thesis, "The Aesthetics of Glass." In the late 1980s Ohira began collaborating with Murano glassmakers, earning the "Premio Selezione" of the Premio Murano in 1987. View More Works