Keita Matsunaga, Cocoon 繭 (Diffuser)

For this collaboration with Nonaka-Hill Gallery, each artist was invited to explore the theme of 'Care' through their individual perspectives and creative processes. 

How does care stretch beyond health-care? How does it spill out into the world? Can it live inside a thing—a cup, a stone, the dent in a pillow where you rested your head? Can that thing hold you for a moment, wrap around you the way sunlight does, soft, sudden? And if it holds you, do you hold it back?

Keita Matsunaga’s ceramics reflect his architectural background and his fascination with renewal and reuse. His process involves a deep sensitivity to local raw materials, layering liquified clay to create works that mirror geological processes. As clay settles, fissures, and cracks, the resulting forms evoke natural textures, reminiscent of tree rings or skin wrinkles, capturing layers of time and memory. Each piece embodies an interplay between the material’s organic behavior and Matsunaga’s structured planning, grounding his art in both the physical landscape and symbolic narratives of sedimentation.

Born in Tajimi, Japan (an area well known for ceramics), in 1986, Keita Matsuaga currently lives and works in both Tajimi and Kani in Gifu prefecture.  The son of ceramists, his artistic training includes studying architecture at Meijo University, (2010), completing the Tajimi City Ceramics Design Laboratory (2013), and graduation from the Kanazawa Utsatsuyama Crafts Workshop (2016). Matsunaga has shown extensively across Japan in both a gallery setting and museums and has won several awards including the Takaoka Contemporary Craft Competition (2013).  His work was most recently included in Contemporary Pottery: inside⇄ outside, at the Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Seto, Japan (2022) and Rakusui-tei Art Museum, Toyama, Japan (2022).