ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) opened ITOCHU AOYAMA ART SQUARE in the CI Plaza, a commercial facility situated next to ITOCHU’s Tokyo Head Office, in October 2012. The gallery was part of ITOCHU’s social contribution activities, with the aim of developing the future generation through art, contributing to the local community, and promoting both local and international art and culture.

The exhibition LOVE THE MATERIAL in AOYAMA presents contemporary crafts created by a new generation of artists in Japan. Contemporary crafts represent a form of modern art born out of a love for a wide variety of materials such as metals, ceramics, glass, fabrics, Japanese lacquer, wood, and stone. The exhibition aims to provide a full introduction of more than one hundred contemporary craft works.
From a global perspective, contemporary crafts prosper most in Scandinavian countries and California on the west coast of the United States. The contemporary craft works created from various materials by the new generation of artists in Japan boast a high level of technique and quality comparable to those in other countries, exhibiting a surprising range of creativity and diversity that go far beyond the concept of traditional arts and crafts. We hope that a lot of people will take advantage of this opportunity for an up-close look at the work produced by this new generation of artists.