Kana Umeda

I’ve always been attracted by glass as a material as it easily blurs the line between the visible and the invisible. When there is glass, for example a sheet of glass in the window frame, we see the things behind it without paying so much attention to the existence of the glass window but once there is a reflection of light, raindrops or even some cracks on the glass it suddenly becomes a concrete material that exists before the eyes.

Glass itself is a mysterious and ambiguous material, changing its visibility depending on the shape, color, and context, which gives me a lot of room to explore and play with the question, “what do we really see?”

My jewellery pieces often are an accumulation of small objects made out of glass, rejecting to have a fixed form but adding a slight mobility when worn so that they create various kinds of “spaces” between the wearer’ body and the viewers’ vision. Creating these “spaces” by jewellery for me is partly answering to the question and partly re-asking the question in different formats.

One of the basic facts I learned in answering to the question was that all vision is reflection of light. And it stuck to me. Since then, I pursue shapes that give myself a possibility of re-doubting my own vision with the transparency of glass and the power of reflection of light.

Thus, my jewellery pieces, I hope, can evoke a simple question: Am I seeing the shape of light? The answer is yes.

Kana Umeda | _cthruit

KANA UMEDA | _CTHRUIT
Mobile: 0472 12 28 85
Email: umeda.kana@gmail.com
Website: www.cthruit.com

Education

Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Information in Keio University in Tokyo in 1996.
Studied glass blowing in Notojima Glass Studio in Ishikawa prefecture in Japan in 2000
Took a workshop in Penland Crafts School in the US and another with Takeshi Tsujino in Tokyo in the same year.
In 2002, I took a glass cold casting workshop with Yosuke Kinoshita in Fukui, Japan
2002-2004, glass casting course in the studio of Yosuke Kinoshita, Yamanashi Japan
In 2005, learned lampworking technique in the studio of a renowned glass artist Kiyoshi Matsumura in Tokyo. From that year on, self-taught the technique.

Professional activities: trade shows

Established a glass jewelry brand, _cthruit, in 2008
Participated in a trade show, Draft!, in Kobe in 2008
Participated in a trade show, Tokyo Gift Show in 2009
Participated in a collective exhibition for contemporary jewelry brands, New Jewelry, organized by the director of a renowned contemporary jewelry gallery in Tokyo, Gallery Deux Poissons, between 2010-2016
Participated in a trade show in Toronto, IDS (Interior Design Show) in 2013.
Participated in IFF (International Furniture Fair) in New York
Participated in a trade shows, Interior Lifestyle Tokyo, in the year 2015 and 2016.
Participated in a trade show Maison & Objets in Paris in 2016

Professional activities: exhibitions

2005: Aoyama Art Project (Tokyo), Art and river bank (Tokyo), High-kyo (Tokyo)
2006: Kosumi (Tokyo), Spiral (Tokyo)
2007: Matsumoto craft fair (Nagano) etc.
2008: Kosumi (Tokyo), gallery it’s (Tokyo), Mizunosora (Tokyo) etc.
2009: Lantiki (Hyogo), Arts & Science (Tokyo) etc.
2010: Motohama (Gifu), Soyacoco (Gifu), Fukunaga (Yamaguchi) etc.
2011: Hanakura (Gifu), Azumino (Aomori), Plain People (Tokyo) etc.
2012: Gallery deux poisons (Tokyo), Plain People (Tokyo), gallery moe (Kumamoto) ,Soyacoco (Gifu) etc.
2013: Gallery Mano (Taiwan), Monotohito (Ishikawa), Shinjuku Isetan (Tokyo), Matsuya Ginza (Tokyo), Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi (Tokyo) etc.
2014: Galerie Wa2 (Tokyo), Gallery deux poisons (Tokyo), Wako (Tokyo), Conran Shop (Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka), Pass the baton (Tokyo), Mitate (Tokyo), Plain People (Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka, Osaka, Sapporo), Gallery Ecru+HM (Tokyo)
2015: Artium (Fukuoka), Karimizu an (Nagasaki), Perche? (Fukuoka), Conran Shop (Tokyo, Nagoya, Fukuoka), tmh. Atelier (Tokyo), MoMA Design Store Tokyo, Isetan Shinjuku (Tokyo) etc.
2016: Gallery Umi-no-ie (Tokyo), Jigum atelier shop (Seoul, Korea), Perche? (Fukuoka), Niguramu gallery (Ishikawa), Lijou shop (Tokyo), Gallery P+EN (Nagoya)
2017: York shop (Tokyo), Matsuya Ginza (Tokyo)
2018: MAD Fashion Sales (Brussels, Belgium)
2019: Exhibition in Bettina Flament (Lille, France), New Jewelry (Tokyo, Japan)