Cover Installation view of "Flavour of Art" at HKGTA Town Club (Photo: HKGTA Town Club)
Installation view of "Flavour of Art" at HKGTA Town Club (Photo: HKGTA Town Club)
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Kunihiko Nohara’s surreal creations are on view at HKGTA Town Club
As soon as the elevator doors open to the entrance of HKGTA Town Club in Central, visitors are greeted by a statue of a life-size swimmer, enveloped in an omelette, carrying a Japanese flag.
Unexpected and surreal, this sculpture is part of the exhibition, The Flavour of Art, featuring the work of Japanese artist Kunihiko Nohara. Known for juxtaposing unusual motifs in his surreal wooden sculptures, Nohara’s pieces have subtly taken over HKGTA Town Club. The luxury private members club, which opened in 2022, has three restaurants, three bars and four private rooms.
Currently, cloud-like shapes attached to sundry objects—from which figures can be seen emerging—are ubiquitous throughout the space. This happens to be a hallmark feature of Nohara’s work. In one piece, for instance, a large white cloud rises from a cup of milky coffee, with a figure wearing swimming goggles and with his head and feet sticking out from either side of the cloud as if he’s swimming through it.
Kinihiko Nohara at his exhibition at HKGTA Town Club (Photo: courtesy gallery UG)
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“I used to sit and watch the sky and see the clouds fade away. The shapes were hazy and abstract,” says Nohara. “I like making works about invisible things.”
Through these barely-there forms, the Japanese sculptor explores themes of freedom, time and human experience. His works can be seen as metaphors for feelings and ideas buried in the subconscious—which are felt and thought but not necessarily seen.
Equally deceptive is the material Nohara uses to make his sculptures. At first glance, it’s difficult to fathom that the artist’s pieces are made of wood, let alone carved out of a single block. Nohara prefers the fragrant camphor wood (a traditional material used for sculpture in Japan) as it is smoother to carve. He typically tries to use found blocks of wood, sustaining zero wastage in his process.
The artist also feels drawn to wood as it reflects the process of ageing. “You can feel the passage of time in the wood, whether it’s through feeling the wood or looking at the rings. I like to explore the idea of time passing in my work as well,” says the artist.
Installation view of Nohara's "Flavour of Art" at HKGTA Town Club (Photo: courtesy gallery UG)
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Sixteen years ago, at one of his early exhibitions, Nohara created a wooden sculpture titled Nomi Ho! It was this very piece that made Eiichiro Sasaki, the founder of gallery UG, want to work with Nohara. "I just felt this was it," Sasaki says of the potential he saw in Nohara.
Since then, Nohara’s unique and unmistakable style has significantly grown in concept and technique, boosting his practice in Japan and the region, the height of which is on full display at HKGTA Town Club.
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