Arko
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Arko lives and works in Japan. She has exhibited internationally in Quiet Vitality at SOMEWHERE TOKYO (2025); LOEWE Crafted World at Yodobashi J6, Tokyo (2025) and the Shanghai Exhibition Center, Shanghai (2024); Shades of Light at Galerie56 × Sarah Myerscough Gallery, New York (2024); Reframing at World Kitaaoyama Building, Tokyo (2024); Laboratorium For Flet on Wickerwork at Sophienholm Art Gallery, Copenhagen (2024); Material, or at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo (2023); Straw and Life at SOMEWHERE TOKYO (2023); and LOEWE Weaves at Sotheby’s, New York (2021).
In 2018 she was shortlisted for the Loewe Craft Prize and exhibited at the Design Museum, London. Earlier exhibitions include Changing Attitude at Japan House, Tokyo (2019); Loewe Baskets during Milan Design Week, Italy (2019); Object Come from the Earth at Gallery Utsuwakan, Kyoto (2018); and Say No to Limits at the National Museum of China, Beijing (2007).
Arko’s sculptures use rice straw, a by-product of the rice plant. The material previously played a significant role in everyday Japanese life and was used to make items such as shoes, coats, blankets, and food wrappers. Now its main use is for the production of traditional straw festoons, which are holy ornaments for Shinto New Year ceremonies. It has almost faded out from modern life, despite large volumes of rice crops still being produced for food consumption. Arko’s practice aims to reinvigorate the material by creating something new with it, to highlight it again within contemporary society and inspire feelings of respect for the natural world that provides us with sustenance.
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WorksSignature Works
Installation Shots
Exhibitions-
Thread
Group Exhibition 28 Mar - 16 May 2026Read more -
TEFAF Maastricht
Maastricht, NL 15 - 20 Mar 2025Read more -
FOG Design + Art
San Francisco, USA 23 - 26 Jan 2025Read more -
FOG Design + Art
San Francisco, USA 18 - 21 Jan 2024Read more
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PAD London
Art Fair 10 - 15 Oct 2023At PAD London we will showcase ‘Chamber’, a global survey of material-led, specialist endemic design. Chamber speaks to the abundance of the earth from which our artist-designer-makers sustainably source and...Read more -
Collect
London, UK 23 - 27 Feb 2022These two ideas have been historically cast in binary opposition, an incompatible comparison between human influence and the natural world. Yet there is clearly a pressing need to reassess and...Read more -
FOG Design + Art
San Francisco, USA 20 - 23 Jan 2022Sarah Myerscough Gallery is pleased to announce that we are returning to FOG Design + Art fair in San Francisco in January 2022. We will be offering a presentation of...Read more -
Outside In
Group Exhibition 1 - 27 Oct 2021OFFSITE : 6 - 7 Motcomb Street Chelsea London SW1X Opening hours: Monday - Friday 10am - 6pm Saturday - Sunday 10am - 5pm Outside In presents exceptional works of...Read more
