TAI Modern is delighted to open our 2025 season with a two-person show featuring the work of Nakamura Tomonori and Watanabe Chiaki. Both men attended the SADO School of Bamboo Art on Sado Island in the Niigata Prefecture in Japan in 2010, where they were taught by noted TAI Modern artist, Honma Hideaki. Drawn together by their explorations of transparency and linearity, both Nakamura and Watanabe are proudly carrying on the Sado Island bamboo tradition.
Nakamura Tomonori was a former IT engineer before he chose to pursue an artistic career. Enrolling at the SADO School in 2010, he studied under Honma Hideaki. While he was a student, he showed his work locally and regionally and won seven awards before he had even graduated. After graduating, Nakamura began to show on a national scale and was accepted into the prestigious 45th Nitten (Japan Fine Arts Exhibition).
Ever the engineer, he would often use paper maquettes to plan the composition of a piece before even touching any bamboo. However, he has recently
