Kimi Nii (Hiroshima, Japan 1947)
Ceramist and designer.
Born in Hiroshima, Japan, Kimi Nii lives and works in Brazil, where she develops a body of work in ceramics that moves between utilitarian production and sculpture. Trained in design, she has taken part in group exhibitions since 1979, such as the 2nd Encontro de Ceramistas de Parati [Parati Ceramists Meeting], and held her first solo exhibition in 1983 at Galeria Deco in São Paulo.
Critical Commentary
As with many Japanese or Japanese-descended artists, Kimi Nii combines traditional technique with Western artistic language in her work. Based on the procedures of Japanese ceramics, the artist explores new solutions, experimenting with the resources and limits of the material.
Kimi Nii has a vast utilitarian production, highly valued by her, which at the beginning of her career was guided by the desire to apply the concepts she had learned in design school: "clean design and pure form, combined with need".1 These concerns come close to the aims of the Bauhaus. However, this formal economy maintains an unquestionable link with elements of Eastern visuality and appears as an option in her sculptures, which start from a precise drawing. Volumes of simple forms are built from modeled clay. They are vertical objects, such as the Papiros [Papyri], spiral cones, or horizontal ones, such as Discos [Discs].
Several sculptures are given names such as Cone, Cilindro [Cylinder], Esfera [Sphere]. In other objects, Zepelins [Zeppelins], Focas [Seals], Carretéis [Spools], the artist alludes to everyday objects and often makes cuts in the pieces, incisions that emphasize the lines and create gaps and slits through the removal of material. Her series on flora, developed from the 1990s onward, reinforces her interest in organic forms - bromeliads, cacti, water lilies, calla lilies, buds, fruits, seeds, pink grasses, green grasses, pineapples. The Donguris form another series in her production. The word donguri, in Japanese, means hazelnut. The shape of the nut is the reference for these low pieces, about 40 centimeters high, of irregularly conical form, which rest unsteadily on the floor and can spin with a slight push of the hand.
Her work, more than craft, is characterized as art, since it transcends merely utilitarian aspects, within a concern with applying the ceramist's formal repertoire, and it is recognized as such, being included in visual arts exhibitions.
Note
1 According to a statement published on the artist's website. Available at: [http://www.kiminii.com.br/]. Accessed: Aug. 18, 2007.
Critiques
"A rare case among ceramists, Kimi Nii manages to give clay a modern dimension, thus belonging to the circle of contemporary sculptors. Using an age-old technique, she rejects the traditional solutions of ceramics and seeks the unusual possibilities of art, responding to inner longings and challenges.(...) Kimi decodes the rules of organic forms, recognizing the potential and the limits of clay, adjusting the relationship between support and result, to make the most of ceramics".
Miguel Chaia
CHAIA, Miguel. [Kimi Nii]. In: LYGIA Reinach/Kimi Nii: esculturas/flora cerâmica. São Paulo: Múltipla de Arte, 1994.
Solo Exhibitions
1983 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Deco
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Deco
1985 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Babelidus
1987 - Porto Alegre RS - Design Incomum [Unusual Design]
1987 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Mônica Filgueiras de Almeida
1992 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Mônica Filgueiras de Almeida
1993 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Banco Central
1993 - São José do Rio Preto SP - Solo, at A-2 Agência de Arte
1994 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Múltipla de Arte
1995 - Londrina PR - Solo, at Universidade Estadual de Londrina - Centro de Cultura Catuaí
1995 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Múltipla
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Museus Castro Maya - Museu do Açude
1996 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Solo, at Galeria Coletânea
1996 - Vitória ES - Solo, at Universidade Estadual do Espírito Santo
1997 - Campos do Jordão SP - Solo, at Galeria Nara Roesler
1997 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Mônica Filgueiras de Almeida
1998 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Shopping Paulista - Jardim das Esculturas
1998 - São Paulo SP - Solo, at Galeria Deco
1999 - Natal RN - Solo, at Palácio das Artes
1999 - Tokyo (Japan) - Solo, at Plaza Gallery
2001 - Tokyo (Japan) - Solo, at Espaço Manabu Mabe
2003 - Florianópolis SC - Solo, at Masc
Group Exhibitions
1979 - Parati RJ - 2º Encontro de Ceramistas de Parati [2nd Parati Ceramists Meeting]
1979 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Toki
1980 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Toki
1980 - Brasília DF - Group show, at Fundação Cultural do Distrito Federal
1980 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Tenda
1981 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Toki
1981 - São Paulo SP - Forma Objetos [Form Objects]
1981 - Parati RJ - 3º Encontro de Ceramistas de Parati [3rd Parati Ceramists Meeting]
1982 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Deco
1983 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Toki
1983 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Paço das Artes
1984 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Deco
1984 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Ocra
1984 - São Paulo SP - 1ª Mostra Aberta de Cerâmica Arte [1st Open Ceramic Art Exhibition]
1985 - São Paulo SP - 2ª Mostra Aberta de Cerâmica Arte [2nd Open Ceramic Art Exhibition]
1985 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Tenda
1986 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Toki
1986 - São Paulo SP - 3ª Mostra Aberta de Cerâmica Arte [3rd Open Ceramic Art Exhibition]
1986 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Masp
1986 - São Paulo SP - 1ª Mostra M.O.A Cerâmica Contemporânea [1st M.O.A Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition]
1986 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Kitaro Zen
1986 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Deco
1987 - São Paulo SP - 2ª Mostra M.O.A Cerâmica Contemporânea [2nd M.O.A Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition]
1987 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Kitaro Zen
1987 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Mônica Filgueiras de Almeida
1987 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Paço das Artes
1988 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Toki
1988 - São Paulo SP - Joias, Uma Expressão de Arte [Jewelry, An Expression of Art], at Galeria Skultura
1988 - São Paulo SP - 4ª Mostra Aberta de Cerâmica Arte [4th Open Ceramic Art Exhibition]
1988 - Rome (Italy) - Group show, at Instituto Italo-Latino Americano - IILA
1988 - Madrid (Spain) - Group show, at Centro Cultural Conde Duque
1988 - Buenos Aires (Argentina) - Group show, at Centro Cultural Ciudad de Buenos Aires
1989 - Lisbon (Portugal) - Group show, at Palácio Foz
1989 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at Galeria Cândido Mendes
1989 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Espaço Fernandes Mera
1989 - São Paulo SP - 5ª Mostra Aberta de Cerâmica Arte [5th Open Ceramic Art Exhibition]
1989 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Toki
1990 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1992 - Mococa SP - Group show, at Museu de Artes Plásticas Quirino da Silva
1992 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Ars Art
1992 - Campinas SP - Group show, at Centro de Conveniência Cultural de Campinas
1993 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Gabinete de Arte Raquel Arnaud
1993 - São Paulo SP - 3º Estúdio Internacional de Tecnologias de Imagem [3rd International Studio of Image Technologies], at Sesc Pompéia
1993 - Curitiba PR - Group show, at Museu Alfredo Andersen
1993 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Ars Art
1993 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Group show, at Museu Histórico Nacional - MHN
1994 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Museu da Cultura/PUC
1995 - São Paulo SP - Brasil-Japão Arte [Brazil-Japan Art], at Fundação Mokiti Okada M.O.A.
1995 - São Paulo SP - 1º United Artists [1st United Artists], at Casa das Rosas
1996 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at MAB-Faap
1997 - Vancouver (Canada) - Group show, at Lewarne Galleries
1998 - São Paulo SP - Traços e Formas [Lines and Forms], at Jo Slaviero Galeria de Arte
1999 - São José dos Campos SP - Group show, at Galeria Colinas
1999 - São Paulo SP - Arte Nativa Contemporânea [Contemporary Native Art], at Galpão de Design
2000 - Saint-Étienne (France) - Biennale Internationale Design 2000
2000 - São Paulo SP - 500 Anos Design [500 Years Design], at Pinacoteca do Estado
2001 - Belo Horizonte MG - Group show, at Galeria Regard
2001 - São Paulo SP - Design e Natureza [Design and Nature]
2001 - São Paulo SP - Group show, at Galeria Francine
2002 - São Paulo SP - Ópera Aberta: celebração [Open Opera: Celebration], at Casa das Rosas
2002 - São Paulo SP - Feira [Fair], at Galeria Virgílio
2002 - São Paulo SP - Tendências [Trends], at Masp
2002 - São Paulo SP - Lilás [Lilac], at Decoração e Design Center
2003 - São Paulo SP - Gerações: a arte contemporânea nipo-brasileira [Generations: Japanese-Brazilian Contemporary Art], at Espaço de Artes Unicid
2003 - São Paulo SP - Tomie Ohtake na Trama Espiritual da Arte Brasileira [Tomie Ohtake in the Spiritual Fabric of Brazilian Art], at Instituto Tomie Ohtake
2004 - Rio de Janeiro RJ - Tomie Ohtake na Trama Espiritual da Arte Brasileira [Tomie Ohtake in the Spiritual Fabric of Brazilian Art], at MNBA
Source: Itaú Cultural
