Arata Fuchi

Arata Fuchi creates hand-fabricated jewelry-as-sculpture. His work is diverse, including granulated textured silver and gold jewels, geometric silver forms that frame intricately meshed pure gold networks, and fantastical organic forms, often appearing outsize or overgrown. The works are intimate in their detail, with miniscule granules of pure gold set in silver, or tiny granules embedded in large forms, all of which Fuchi fabricates by hand, working with microscopic level magnification. The unique texture of many of his jewels is the result of silver pulverization, in which Fuchi covers the surfaces with silver powder, creating a softened, textured surface that invites one’s touch. (Patricia Kiley Faber / Aaron Faber Gallery)

Born in Japan, 1975, “My work receives inspiration from the Japanese sense of beauty, that is ‘beauty of form that nature not artifice creates’ and the ‘vitality of nature’. To express these, I developed the ancient technique of South Korea that is called Kum-Bu (Keum-Boo) in my own way. From trial and error, I created an original technique I call pulverization. For this technique, the surface is covered with silver (metal) powder to make the surfaces rough and irregular. With this irregular shadow a peculiar feeling is expressible.” (Arata Fuchi)