Ivory linen fabric ground, safety pins arranged in a checkerboard like pattern, hanging together as a single square from thin rod at top, all connected.

30 x 30 x 1 in.

From the Collection of Keil Wurl, Raleigh, North Carolina

Tamiko Kawata was trained in sculpture at Tokyo University. She grew up in Japan, in the wake of World War II, and immigrated to New York in 1962. Her approach is informed by modernist ideas of Dada and Assemblage. Experimental in nature, Kawata explores the physicality of humble materials via multiplicity and unexpected juxtapositions. She creates category-defying works that range from collage and sculpture to major site-specific installations. The safety pin is her signature building block, but she also incorporates other everyday, utilitarian objects in her work with similar effect.

Kawata has exhibited extensively, both in the United States and internationally. Her work is held in numerous public collections and she is the recipient of multiple awards and residencies from institutions such as such as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Pollock/Krasner Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, MacDowell Colony Residency, Yaddo Art Colony, and The Millay Colony for the Arts.

Good estate condition.