Woodworker Shoji Morinaga Solo Exihibition: After the Hollow
Jul 18, 2026 at 12:00pm ~ Aug 08, 2026 at 7:00pm
The exhibition presents a new body of work Morinaga has developed in recent years, built around his growing fascination with the empty space inside a piece rather than the form around it.
Morinaga handles every stage of his practice himself, from carving to packing and shipping. As his pieces grew larger, weight became a problem he could only solve by hollowing them out, and that solution became the idea behind the show.
“The stool with a hole in it was born from this idea,” Morinaga said in a statement. “As I repeatedly hollowed out the inside of several pieces, I began to feel an indescribable charm in the space inside that I had deeply carved out. Hollowing out was not just a process to lighten the work, but also an act of creating space inside the work.”
That question, of how to give form to emptiness, led to the jar series featured in the show. Morinaga credits years spent carving bowls and vases for the thin, precise walls now possible in these newer pieces. The forms, in a sense, are not sculpted from the outside in but carved from the inside out, with the final shape simply what remains.
Based in Kagoshima, Morinaga trained as a carpenter and furniture maker before going independent in 2007. His work sits between sculpture and craft, drawing out the mass, cracks, humidity and memory already present in a piece of wood, whether it once served as a chair, a bowl or something else entirely.
When: July 18 – August 8 | Closed Sundays and Mondays and public holidays
Information
Start: Jul 18th 2026 at 12:00pm
End: Aug 8th 2026 at 7:00pm
HENKYO
5-9-15 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku
Free
