12 - Yoichi Ohira (1946–2022)

Yoichi Ohira (1946–2022) Bottle Blue and white glass 19 x 13.7 cm Condition. Structure: 100% Condition. Surface: 95% For direct WhatsApp assistance before and during the live auction: +39 346 12 999 80 // Direct assistance via WhatsApp before and during the auction: +39 346 12 999 80 Yoichi Ohira, a Japanese glass artist who lived in Venice for over twenty-five years until his passing, challenged the conventional attributes of glass art—typically hard, fragile, cold, and heavy. His luminous blown-glass vases offer a tactile exception, inviting viewers to handle them as specimens from a Wunderkammer. These small, lightweight creations invite exploration, showcasing Ohira’s abstract design vocabulary inspired by precious stones, polished ivory, veined rocks, sparkling water, agate, moss, and lichens. Ohira can be compared to Émile Gallé for his ability to emulate the natural world in glass. His work also draws parallels with Jean Dunand’s bronze vases, the Japanese rokusho patina, and Otto Natzler’s volcanic glazes. It represents an extraordinary convergence of diverse media translated into glass. After graduating from the Kuwasawa Design School in Tokyo in 1969, Ohira began an apprenticeship in glassblowing at the Kagami Crystal Company, Ltd. In 1973, he moved to Venice to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. Ohira’s deep connection with Murano, which began in 1973 at the Fucina degli Angeli, continued with his role as artistic director at the De Majo glassworks in Murano in 1987. In the late 1980s, Ohira collaborated with Murano glassmakers, receiving the prestigious “Premio Selezione” award from the Murano Prize in 1987. In 1992, he embarked on an independent career, collaborating with master glassblower Livio Serena and master glass cutter Giacomo Barbini. Over the course of his more than four decades as an artist, Ohira has seamlessly blended Japanese aesthetics with traditional Italian glassmaking techniques, combining the vibrant colors of Murano glass with the subtle forms of Japanese applied arts, rooted in nature. His vases, exhibited alongside works by renowned artists such as Dale Chihuly, Lino Tagliapietra, Carlo Scarpa, and Alvar Aalto, have earned him a prominent position in the global glass art scene. Ohira’s works have been exhibited internationally. His work is included in major collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian Design Museum, and the American Craft Museum.