How to capture the passage of time with shapes’ memories is at the heart of Reiko Kinoshita artistic approach. 

When looking at her paintings one realizes that something was there before, but is not anymore; only the silhouette, the memory of the shape remains after time has passed. Reiko’s paintings, mainly on paper and fabric reveal what goes on and what used to be, capturing the passage of time itself within the work.

Gilles Deleuze, one of the world most influential and prolific French philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century, writes about possibilities to perceive vital and imperceptible forces in art making. 

Artworks exhibited at the Verbier gallery all have in common that they provides viewers with a possibility to to witness the impact the imperceptible; a notion that is also determinant in many aspects of Japanese culture.

Kohei Ukai creates contemporary sculptures using Urushi, a traditional Japanese lacquer technique which that dates thousands of years back. Kohei is fascinated by the inherent and symbiotic relationship between the tree used as the basis of the artwork and Urushi. Lacquer doesn’t have a shape of its own, it only acquires one after being applied on a surface; by doing so, the exterior indeed reveals the hidden interior of the sculpture. 

As much as it protects, Urushi provides a nearly eternal quality to the surface of Kohei’s sculptures which stand out for their brilliance and elegance.

Namika Nakai’s work explores how porcelain and glaze respond to extreme firing temperatures. As strata are the visual result of rock formation, her sculptures reveal their forming when subject to extreme conditions, through specifically elaborated firing techniques.

Cracks and wrinkles are not considered as defects but, instead, may be seen as part of the legacy of Japanese aesthetics, embracing and adorning imperfection. Playing with contrasts of fragility and strength, her sculptures sometimes look like paper, sometimes like metal but for sure can not leave the viewer indifferent.

Kenji Gomi ceramic works examine the true nature of ceramic, and reveal the artist's interest in the legacy left by the Jōmon potteries and the unearthed relics discovered in Chino, Nagano Prefecture. These relics attracted him, as one may feel the essence of the people who created them. Kenji's moulding technique, even though being no different from the one used at that time, aims to create art by combining uniqueness and universality.