Mai Kato

En_03

2025

Iron, Stell

Sculpture

H9.5 × W9 × D7.5 cm

Artist Profile

Working primarily with iron, I create abstract sculptures that evoke drawings in space through original techniques based on gas welding and cutting. By melting iron at temperatures of around 1500°C, I engage with the material’s transformation process, seeking what I call its “formless beauty”—a beauty that emerges not from defined contours, but from the raw, shifting essence of the metal itself.
Since 2015, alongside my sculptural practice, I have also been producing two-dimensional works using Mino washi, a traditional handmade paper from Gifu Prefecture, as a support. These pieces incorporate materials such as iron powder, rust, and pure gold leaf—elements that, like iron, are subject to change over time.
Through my work, I aim to create a space of quiet transience—a realm where opposing qualities such as brilliance and decay, elegance and austerity, coexist and gently dissolve into one another. I am drawn to the subtle beauty of impermanence, and to the poetic tension between what is seen and what is left unseen.

◾️ Solo Exhibitions
2021  yo ha ku, GALLERY IRIYA (Tokyo, Japan)
2021  Iron Memory, Lexus Nagara (Gifu, Japan)
2021  The Iron Drawing, Lights Gallery (Aichi, Japan)
2019  Toki no Katachi, Tama Art University (Tokyo, Japan)
2018  Tetsu wo Tokasu, GALLERY IRIYA (Tokyo, Japan)

◾️ Group Exhibitions
2025 「Art Port Takamatsu」Takamatsu Symbol Tower (Kagawa)
2024 「Student Salons 2024」Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, The Art Students League of New York(New York, U.S.A.)
2024 「ART OSAKA 2024」MARUEIDO JAPAN(Osaka)
2024 「Inori no Katachi – Yoshio Ogawa, Yasuko Hirano, Nobuaki Maeda, Mai Kato」Antique Nagano (Tokyo)
2023  Being – Mom is a Woman -, √K Contemporary (Tokyo, Japan)
2022  KAI Design Exhibition, FOAM CONTEMPORARY, Ginza Tsutaya Books (Tokyo, Japan)
2022  Amabiki Village and Sculpture 2022, Hachimangu Shrine (Ibaraki, Japan)
2020  Spring Art Exhibtion, GINZA ATRIUM, Ginza Tsutaya Books (Tokyo, Japan)
2019  HAIKU-Sculpture 2019, Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts (Okinawa, Japan)
2018  JAA New Members Exhibition, JAA Gallery (Tokyo, Japan)
2018   The 9th Shoes Box Sculpture Exhibition, National Taiwan University of Arts (Taiwan, Taipei)

◾️ Commission Work
2019  Lexus Nagara, L.Lounge (Gifu, Japan)

◾️ Commissions
AICHI METAL Co. (Aichi, Japan) / Kai Corporation (Gifu, Japan)/ Lexus Nagara (Gifu, Japan)

◾️Others
2017 Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Next-Generation Culture Up-and-Coming Artist Development, “Up-and-Coming Artist Development Project in Support of the Artistic Pursuits of People with Disabilities”

√K Contemporary

Detail
SECTION :
Galleries
BOOTH :
W14