PORTLAND, Ore., United States—September 23, 2024—Portland Japanese Garden is thrilled to present its final new art exhibition of the year with Kintsugi: The Restorative Art of Naoko Fukumaru in the attraction’s Pavilion and Calvin and Mayho Tanabe Galleries from September 28 through January 27, 2025. Kintsugi is an ancient method of mending damaged ceramics using urushi (natural lacquer) dusted with powdered gold. This timely exhibition will explore universally resonant themes of healing through the artwork of kintsugi artist and master conservator Naoko Fukumaru.
Fukumaru has over 20 years of experience as a professional ceramic and glass conservator at the Detroit Institute of Arts Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and other institutions in the U.S., Europe, Egypt, and Japan. She was born in Kyoto, Japan to a four-generation antique auction house company, and grew up around artwork. Her work as a kintsugi artist is rooted in the belief that what is broken can be beautiful, and in the transformative power of healing spiritual wounds as well as ceramic artworks.
“I first visited Portland Japanese Garden in November 2022,” shares Fukumaru. “I realized that care and love are the main ingredients of this place. It was unmistakable that staff, volunteers, visitors, and all who were involved in this Garden, were giving so much love, care, passion, and pride here. This truly resonates with my kintsugi artwork. This method of mending is seen as enhancing the beauty and value of objects by celebrating their imperfection and impermanence. This approach is the opposite of traditional Western ceramic restoration, in which the damage to the work is sought to be hidden, which I studied and practiced for 25 years.”
To read more of Naoko Fukumaru’s thoughts on her work and the philosophy behind it, click here.
Visual Assets
Images can be found in this Dropbox folder. Photographer name is in the file name. Please stylize the credit as “Courtesy of Portland Japanese Garden, photo by [fill in name].” If no photographer is listed, “Courtesy of Portland Japanese Garden” will suffice. Additional information about the names of the artwork are in a document in the Dropbox folder.
Images of Portland Japanese Garden in fall can be found here.
Media Contact
Will Lerner, Communications Manager
(503) 542-9351 (office)
wlerner@japanesegarden.org
About Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is a nonprofit organization originally founded in 1963 as a place for cross-cultural understanding following World War II. A hallmark in the City of Portland, the Garden was founded on the ideals of peace and mutual understanding between peoples and cultures. Portland Japanese Garden is considered the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan and the foremost Japanese cultural organization in North America.