Biography
Kunikazu Kadota (born 1985, Gifu Prefecture; the slug 'kadota-norikazu' arises from an alternative reading of the kanji 訓和 — the artist's own preferred romanisation is 'Kunikazu') is a Japanese sculptor whose practice extends print logic onto folded, photographed, and re-photographed paper sculpture. He is included in batch-06 on the basis of his 2022 selection for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale, where his work is treated as expanded printmaking rather than as conventional intaglio or relief printmaking.
Kadota completed a Bachelor of Art and Design in Sculpture at Musashino Art University in 2009 and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2012. The dual training across the Tokyo-Kyoto sculpture axis is reflected in his mature work, which combines a Tokyo-school constructive sensibility with a Kyoto-school attention to surface and material specificity.
The 'Color Paper' series (2011–present) and the 'Abstract Paper' series (2016–present) are Kadota's two principal ongoing projects. Both deploy a procedure that repurposes photography as a print-like reproduction medium: he folds and arranges sheets of coloured or monochrome paper into small dimensional configurations, then photographs them — sometimes with multiple-exposure techniques that layer multiple folded states into a single image. The resulting photographic prints retain the index of the physical paper sculpture while detaching it from its original three-dimensional state. The PATinKyoto triennial selection situates this practice within the contemporary 'expanded printmaking' tendency in Kansai-area artist communities.
Major exhibitions include the solo show 'OPEN STUDIO' at Sitterwerk in St. Gallen, Switzerland (2011 — an early career international residency-and-studio exposure); 'before that' at ARTZONE Kyoto (2012); 'whereabouts' at Musashino Art University g-FAL Tokyo (2015); 'physical time' at Gallery PARC Kyoto (2016); 'Back to Back' at HIGURE 17-15 cas Tokyo (2019); the 12th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists at the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma (2015); and the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale at the Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art (2022). Three works documented from PATinKyoto 2022 — 'Metal,' 'Play,' and 'Assembly' — represent the mature output: photographs of carefully arranged paper-and-folded-card configurations, printed at moderate scale.
Kadota's positioning within the contemporary Japanese scene is as a Kyoto-Tokyo trained sculptor who works at the boundary of paper sculpture and photographic print. His 2011 Sitterwerk residency placed him in the international print-and-paper exchange network early in his career; the subsequent decade-long sustained practice has produced a stable visual identity that is recognisable in both gallery and triennial contexts.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1985
- Nationality
- 🇯🇵Japan
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 3
Frequently Asked Questions
Kunikazu Kadota (born 1985, Gifu Prefecture; the slug 'kadota-norikazu' arises from an alternative reading of the kanji 訓和 — the artist's own preferred romanisation is 'Kunikazu') is a Japanese sculptor whose practice extends print logic onto folded, photographed, and re-photographed paper sculpture. He is included in batch-06 on the basis of his 2022 selection for the 3rd PATinKyoto Print Art Triennale, where his work is treated as expanded printmaking rather than as conventional intaglio or relief printmaking.
Kunikazu Kadota was active born in 1985. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Kunikazu Kadota's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
