Contemporary Art Artisan | Textile Artist

KAZUHITO MAEKAWA

Contemporary Artist specializing in Fine Craft
Ph.D. in Arts

KAZUHITO MAEKAWA is a contemporary artist and researcher who proposes and practices "META CRAFTS," a fusion of traditional Japanese dyeing and weaving techniques with cutting-edge digital technologies.
The core of his creative activity lies in the thought of Taro Okamoto, "Art is Sorcery (Jujutsu)," and aims to recover the "sacred function" and "spirituality" stripped away from craft (KOGEI) since the Meiji era, now in the digital age.
Through his doctoral dissertation, he established the concept of "Shin-Shinbutsu Shūgō" (True Fusion of Shinto and Buddhism), a modern reinterpretation of the "Fusion of Shinto and Buddhism" (Shinbutsu Shūgō). He presents a unique aesthetic that transcends the paradoxical inversion between the "mass productivity" inherent in craft and the "uniqueness" guaranteed by digital technology.

1974 Born in Sasayama (now Tamba-Sasayama), Hyōgo Prefecture.
1997 Graduated from the Department of Arts and Crafts, Dyeing and Weaving Course, Faculty of Fine Arts, Osaka University of Arts.
2011 Awarded Ph.D. in Arts from Osaka University of Arts (admitted directly to the doctoral program after the undergraduate degree).
Degree: Doctor of Arts (Hakushi Geijutsu).
2011 - 2020 Part-time Lecturer in the Department of Distance Education, Osaka University of Arts.
2014 - 2019 Research Assistant at the Institute for the Aesthetics of Living, Mukogawa Women's University.

2024 "The Roar" (Hōkō), Pakupakuan (Tokyo)
2020 "Shangri-La", Pakupakuan (Tokyo)
2018 "HEAVEN", Galerie Runpa Runpa (Kanazawa)
2015 "The Legend of Supreme Sovereigns" (Haō Retsuden), Art Space Kingyo Kūkan (Taipei, Taiwan)
2011 "Kazuhito Maekawa - KITSCH -", neutron tokyo (Tokyo)
2010 "Kazuhito Maekawa - KITSCH -", neutron kyoto (Kyoto)
2010 "Shūraku Maruyama × KITSCH - Dyeing the 'Maruyama' Valley of Spirits Red", (Hyōgo)

2010 FROM LAUSANNE TO BEIJING - 6th INTERNATIONAL FIBER ART BIENNALE, (Zhengzhou, China)
Award: Outstanding Award (Prix d'Excellence)
2010 4th RIGA INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE AND FIBER ART TRIENNIAL, (Riga, Latvia)
2008 FROM LAUSANNE TO BEIJING - 5th INTERNATIONAL FIBER ART BIENNALE, (Beijing, China)
Award: Outstanding Award (Prix d'Excellence)
2007 3rd EUROPEAN TRIENNIAL TEXTILE AND FIBER ART, (Riga, Latvia)
Award: Special Prize (Riga City Prize / Prix de la Ville de Riga)
2006 FROM LAUSANNE TO BEIJING - 4th INTERNATIONAL FIBER ART BIENNALE, (Suzhou, China)
Award: Outstanding Award (Prix d'Excellence)
2007 25th Asahi Contemporary Craft Exhibition (25e Exposition Asahi d'Artisanat Contemporain)
Award: Outstanding Award (Prix d'Excellence)

Doctoral Dissertation
"Re-evaluation of 'Kitsch' in the Current Context" (『現在における「キッチュ」の再評価』), March 2011.
Research Notes / Articles
"Possibilities of Computer Technology in Dyeing and Weaving Craft: Regarding Corporality in Digital Technology" (『染織工芸におけるコンピュータテクノロジーの可能性ーデジタル技術にみる身体性をめぐってー』), Bulletin No. 28 of the Institute for the Aesthetics of Living, Mukogawa Women's University, 2018.
Scientific Communications (Presentations)
"The 'Kitschified' Hero as a Deity" (『神としてキッチュァ化するヒーロー』), National Museum of Art, Osaka (Kokuritsu Kokusai Bijutsukan), 2010.
"The Genealogy of Kitsch - From the Perspective of Textile and Dyeing Work Production." (『キッチュの系譜-染織作品制作の視点から』) Presented at the 26th Congress of the Academic Society of Ethnological Arts, Edo-Tokyo Museum, 2010.
"Kitsch and Craft" (『キッチュと工芸』), Kyoto Art Center (Kyoto Geijutsu Center), 2009.

Technique: Combination of the traditional wax-resist dyeing technique (rōketsuzome), digital pattern design, and the latest dyeing technologies.
Theme: Using fabric as a medium of Yorishiro (a receptacle for a spiritual entity) to express the latent "ritual/sorcerous nature (jujutsusei)" within contemporary secular phenomena (such as fan culture/active support, or oshikatsu, and club culture), all rendered through vivid colors and geometric compositions.
Work: The artist elevates digitally and perfectly designed forms into works possessing an unpredictable singularity, achieved through the analog and uncontrollable process of dye "bleeding/diffusion (nijimi)".