On a very quiet morning, on the same piece of toast: Noriko Kawana, Nao Kikuchi, Hikari Ono
Curated by Kenji Ide
May 17–June 14, 2025
Opening Reception: Saturday, May 17 from 3–5pm


Adams and Ollman is pleased to present On a very quiet morning, on the same piece of toast, featuring new sculptural works composed of ceramic, wood, and metal by Japanese artists Noriko Kawana (b. 1988, Iwate, Japan; lives and works in Tokyo, Japan), Nao Kikuchi (b. 1988, Tochigi, Japan; lives and works in Karlsruhe, Germany), and Hikari Ono (b. 1990, Lüneburg, Germany; lives and works in Tokyo, Japan). The exhibition is curated by artist Kenji Ide, whose show, American Friend, was on view at Adams and Ollman in January 2024. For this exhibition, Ide brings together three artists who share common interests in gesture, space, and architecture, and an aesthetic that is minimal, intimate, and haptic. In particular, the artists approach object-making through their hands, which act as a conduit between the internal and physical worlds.

Of the exhibition, Ide noted, "I consider this sense of touch to be a very important part of Japanese art. It is from there that small differences emerge, resulting in unique forms of expression...[the] artists in this exhibition have each created a completely different and unique approach to their work, even though they each have overlapping ideas." This is partly due, in the case of Kawana, Kikuchi, and Ono, to the fact that the artists shared studio space for a period of time. "The studio was laid out in a very organic way, with no firm separation between each artist's production space. We were very close to each other, so that if we had a conversation, it would affect each other's workspace," Ide said. 

Hikari Ono makes sculptures that collapse the formal languages of sculpture and painting. Often starting with a rectangular slab of clay, Ono enacts a series of interventions on and into this tactile surface that then functions like pictorial space. In this series of works, "Object for Painting," Ono scratches, imprints, or draws into the surface, leaving a mark or trace of the body in action. Deep indentations, such as those that appear in Object for Painting No.121, reference the heft or speed of a brushstroke, while the endless, layered stanzas of Object for Painting (tail, teil, terre #1) and Object for Painting (tail, teil, terre #2) function like drawn lines using gravity in the gallery space.

Nao Kikuchi isolates elements from the built environment into abstract and stylized architectural glyphs or remnants. Her small-scale ceramic works reference her own memories and experiences of extant places, such as the shape of a room, a tile floor, a staircase, or a cloister of windows. Complex layers of color, texture, and referential form reinterpret and renegotiate the artist's experience of the urban landscape as "a way of marking my physical presence, as if pinning my footsteps onto a map." 

Noriko Kawana's delicate sculptures combine simple forms such as lines, rectangles, and circles into complex arrangements that reference systems, language, anatomy, and tools of measurement and calculation. Constructed primarily of wood and urushi, a type of lacquer derived from the sap of the urushi tree, Kawana's assemblages call to mind techno-biological body parts or machines, using anatomical and mechanical motifs to consider our lived experience as bodies with the systems, tools, and patterns we construct. abacus (side view) and abacus (pace), for instance, draw connections between the intricate patterns of their namesake and the body's intricate metabolic processes necessary to sustain life. Untitled (ear) instantiates neurons, seed pods, microorganisms, and organizational flow charts to draw attention to formal and perhaps functional relationships between various growth patterns.

Noriko Kawana (b. 1988, Iwate, Japan; lives and works in Tokyo, Japan) earned a BFA from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan in 2012. Her work has been shown at AKIBATAMABI21, second 2., and TANA Studio, all Tokyo, Japan, amongst other venues.

Nao Kikuchi (b. 1988, Tochigi, Japan, lives and works in Karlsruhe, Germany) earned an MFA in 2013 and a BFA in 2011 from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, from 2020 to 2023. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Kunsthalle Mulhouse, Mulhouse, France; Galerie Crone, Vienna, Austria; POLA Museum Annex, Tokyo, Japan; Kunstverein FABRIKculture, Hégenheim, France; and Kunst Raum, Riehen, Switzerland, among others venues.

Hikari Ono (b. 1990, Lüneburg, Germany, lives and works in Tokyo, Japan) earned a BFA from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan in 2014. Her work has been included in exhibitions at The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Kunsthalle Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Kurumaya Museum Ogawa House, Tochigi, Japan; and The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan, among other venues.

Kenji Ide (b. 1981, Yokosuka, Japan; lives and works in Tokyo, Japan.) earned an MFA from Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan in 2006. He has had solo exhibitions at Wschód Gallery and the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature, both Warsaw, Poland; Adams and Ollman and the Portland Japanese Garden, both Portland, Oregon; KAYOKOYUKI and GOYA Curtain, both Tokyo, Japan, amongst other venues. His works has been included in group exhibitions at Société, Berlin, Germany; Laurel Gitlen, New York, NY; Crèvecœur, Paris, France; Guimarães, Vienna, Austria; and Art Center Ongoin and XYZ Collective, both Tokyo, Japan. Ide's work is in the permanent collection of the Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR.



Picture, if you will, a quiet morning. A small group of people are gathered around a table, sharing breakfast. They talk about the day ahead, or reflect on how they slept the night before. Each of them has a similar piece of toast, and they are thoughtfully considering what to place upon it.

Now, imagine what happens when different artists come together in the same space. Educational backgrounds, the local environment, regional characteristics, cultural influences, and the landscape all play a role—but what I find most compelling is the relationships and interactions between the artists themselves. These relationships can foster empathy, but they can also bring out distinct differences.

The three artists participating in this exhibition and myself once shared a studio space. It was an organically structured environment with no clearly defined work areas. Conversations easily flowed into one another’s creative spaces; the proximity fostered natural interaction. Artistic creation is never isolated from outside influences. Inspiration, I believe, arises through a blend of one’s internal experiences and external stimuli. In that sense, those of us who shared that space—myself included—may carry with us a set of overlapping influences.

After my exhibition in Portland last year, I began to imagine this show as a way to introduce those shared, intimate influences. In any community, artists often share what moves them within intimate circles, shaping their own work in the process. It may seem like a fleeting moment, one that takes place around a small table, but I believe it is a moment of quiet beauty.

Although the artists in this exhibition share certain influences, each has developed a unique approach. Their work is tactile and painterly, but not painting. There is a strong sense of touch in all the pieces, though it is expressed differently by each artist.

For example, Hikari Ono’s work is emblematic in this regard—the texture of clay is visible in its raw form. Her ability to preserve or re-create a fleeting expression, to preserve a moment in time, is akin to capturing a moment of nature’s ephemeral beauty. The scale of her work reinforces this sense of intimacy, as it lies comfortably within the size of one’s hand. Her practice, ongoing since 2016, has had a profound influence on us.

Kikuchi’s works, too, operate within the scale of the hand. However, her forms suggest a different, industrial use of the hand—almost as if fragments of architecture have been excised and repurposed. Since relocating to Germany, this series appears to translate and critique elements of Western architectural ornamentation from her own cultural and personal perspective.

Kawana’s works, by contrast, evoke the traditional nature of the hand through craft-like techniques. Their shapes resemble tools, suggesting both utility and inherited tactile knowledge. Her work conveys the role of the hand in making, but with an atypical, subcultural Japanese sensibility that stands out.

I believe this quality of tactility is a vital and defining aspect of Japanese art. From it arise subtle differences that give birth to distinctive expressions. Some may classify it as a matter of craft, but what I wish to emphasize is the freedom and precision of the hand that emerges from such techniques. Through this exhibition, I hope visitors will sense the current nature and sensibility of our hands.

Once more, I return to the image of that small table. It may be just a fleeting moment, yet I believe it is a profoundly beautiful one—like a quiet morning in which nothing has yet been decided. We may not know what the day holds, but we can already picture in our minds what we wish to place on each piece of toast.

– Kenji Ide

Works


Nao Kikuchi
Schillerstraße #10, 2025
ceramic
12 3/8h x 14 3/8w x 1 1/8d in
31.43h x 36.51w x 2.86d cm
NK-2025-05


Nao Kikuchi
Körnerstraße (x), 2025
ceramic
13 3/16h x 15 3/4w x 1 3/16d in
33.50h x 40.01w x 3.02d cm
NK-2025-06


Nao Kikuchi
Herz #6, 2025
ceramic
7 11/16h x 7 7/8w x 13/16d in
19.53h x 20w x 2.06d cm
NK-2025-07


Nao Kikuchi
BW (Green of Lines 1972), 2025
ceramic and spray paint
7 1/2h x 11 1/8w x 1d in
19.05h x 28.26w x 2.54d cm
NK-2025-09


Noriko Kawana
abacus (pace), 2025
wood, urushi, and wire
12 1/4h x 18 1/2w x 1 9/16d in
31.11h x 46.99w x 3.97d cm
NKaw-2025-002


Noriko Kawana
Merikensack (study #2), 2025
wood, urushi, and wire
11 1/4h x 11w x 3d in
28.57h x 27.94w x 7.62d cm
NKaw-2025-003

Noriko Kawana
Untitled (ear), 2025
wood and wire
11 13/16h x 8 5/8w x 5 1/8d in
30h x 21.91w x 13.02d cm
NKaw-2025-005



Hikari Ono
Object for Painting (tail, teil, terre) #1, 2025
ceramic, wire
167 5/16h x 5/8w x 5/8d in
424.97h x 1.59w x 1.59d cm
HO-2025-001



Hikari Ono
Object for Painting (tail, teil, terre) #2, 2025
ceramic, wire
167 5/16h x 5/8w x 5/8d in
424.97h x 1.59w x 1.59d cm
HO-2025-002


Noriko Kawana
Parallax, 2025
wood, urushi, and wire
13 3/4h x 10 5/8w x 2 3/8d in
34.92h x 26.99w x 6.03d cm
NKaw-2025-006


Noriko Kawana
abacus (side view), 2025
wood, urushi, and wire
16 3/16h x 18 7/8w x 1 3/16d in
41.12h x 47.94w x 3.02d cm
NKaw-2025-001


Nao Kikuchi
Woelckpromenade #4, 2025
ceramic and spray paint
7 11/16h x 11 1/8w x 1 3/8d in
19.53h x 28.26w x 3.49d cm
NK-2025-10


Nao Kikuchi
BW, 2025
ceramic and spray paint
6 1/2h x 13 5/8w x 1 1/8d in
16.51h x 34.61w x 2.86d cm
NK-2025-04

Installation