MINORU OHIRA
Minoru Ohira is a Japanese artist based in Los Angeles. He received his BFA in sculpture from Kanazawa City Arts and Crafts College in 1975 and his MFA from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1977. From 1979 to 1981, he continued his education at the Mexico National Institute of Art and then moved to California. He has won some of Japan's highest honors for his sculptures. Minoru creates sculptures from found materials, such as wood, slate, and glass. Minoru is also known for his drawings of softly rounded shapes that incorporate unusual substances. One of the new sculptures he made during the pandemic is " Fairly's Nest" 妖精の巣 with burned cut white oak methods, the tiny details on the wood by burning process, also putting all the perfectly cut woods are together on the “nest” part of this work. Minoru still keeps using only natural materials such as wood, he said because that’s the origin, and that makes him the most natural and suitable to him.
Ohira had numerous solo and group exhibitions at galleries in the world, also solo and group museums shows including The National Art Center in Tokyo, the Lux Art Institutes (San Diego, CA), Dentsu Art Museum (Okayama, Japan), Museum of Contemporary Art in Jacksonville (Jacksonville, Florida), Craft Contemporary Museum (Los Angeles, CA), Pacific Design Center (Los Angeles, CA), Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), Ise Contemporary Art museum (Mie, Japan), the Honolulu Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art (Long Beach, California), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Skirball Cultural Center (Los Angeles, CA), California Center for The Arts Museum (Escondido, CA), Santa Monica Museum of Art /ICALA ( Santa Monica, California), Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Tokyo, Japan) Niigata City Art Museum (Niigata, Japan) the National Gallery of Thailand (Bangkok), and the National Museum of Art in Mexico are also among the public collections holding work by Minoru Ohira.
Press & Articles
"Attractive to the Hand"
Sculpture Magazine Article
December 2018