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Kai Fukunaga Ceramics

@kai.fukunaga

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2025-2026 Intern @starworksceramics
2022-2025 BA (hons) Ceramics @csad_ceramics

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Started off the new year with the Annual Graduate Show @beveregallery! If you happen to be near Worcester, UK it’s on until the 31st of January!

So sad I couldn’t see it in person but proud of myself for figuring out the overseas shipping. First international show (now that I’m back in the US) but hopefully not the last.

A big thank you to @beveregallery for the invitation 🩵

Made at @starworksnc @starworksceramics by @kai.fukunaga

@newdesigners was an amazing experience to end my time in UK. A culmination of three years of studying and immersing myself in ceramics. An end of one era and hopefully a start to another.

It was an honor to win a runner-up prize for Emerging Ceramic Talent from @ruup.and.form and judges @_carlawright @condetallitos_ @erumaamir.ceramics
And incredible to talk to so many people about my work.

It was a long six days, two of set up and four of the show. The excitement, the anxiety. At times hopeful, at times in despair. Not only was it physically exhausting but mentally taxing.

But even so it was worth it for the experience of showing my work to a broader audience. Every time I talked to someone about my work, I became less anxious and more confident. My thoughts became clearer and the ideas more concise. It is the accumulation of small moments that build experience so I’m grateful for this opportunity.

Thank you to @cardiffmet_textiledesign and all the textile graduates for including us in their show! And a huge thank you to @csad_ceramics, @duncanayscough, @natashamayoceramics, @clairecurneen, @ingridamurphy for guiding us in these last three years to reach this point.

And finally a shoutout to my fellow ceramicists who kept me sane through the event. It was so much fun to have this final memory with you 🩷 But next time let’s remember to take a picture together… @katypurrington @edithmatthewsceramics @laterretmoi by @kai.fukunaga

Thank you Eversheds Sutherland!

During the degree show I was honored to be selected for the Eversheds Sutherland Prize. As part of the award, the law firm purchased this piece 𝘗𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘸𝘴 for their collection.

They kindly invited me to their office to see where my artwork would live. When I stepped into their lobby I was immediately captured by the beautiful design and amazing artwork. I was delighted to find out that my work would be placed in this lobby amongst the lovely welsh textiles, natural wood furnishings, and large windows.

It has yet be installed but I took a few photos of the work in the lobby as a momento. It’s not often you get to see where your art will live. I’m so glad this piece has found a good home at ES Cardiff.

#craft #contemporarycraft #ceramics #clay #stoneware #contemporaryceramics #ceramicart #sculpture #ceramicsculpture #craftsmanship #handmade #interiors #design #ceramicdots #dotsdotsdots #ceramicbasket #coloredclay @csad_ceramics @cardiffmetcsad by @kai.fukunaga

It is a great honor to highlight award winning LUSH4 Artist:

Kai Fukunaga
Longing for places I’ve yet to grow
Colored Stoneware
2025
@kai.fukunaga
@lighthouseartcenter by @kai.fukunaga

Introducing our incoming long-term residents!!! Kai Fukunaga is a Japanese American ceramic artist born to a Japanese father and an American mother. Raised between cultures, she is interested in how seemingly insignificant moments, repeated gestures, and everyday environments quietly shape identity over time. This sensibility informs her process, where she creates latticed forms through an accumulation of individual clay elements that explore repetition, pattern, rhythm, and embodied memory, while engaging tensions between fragility and permanence.
Fukunaga earned a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University in 2014 before moving to New York City, where she worked as a commercial kitchen designer. She began working with ceramics in 2018 at a local studio, later pursuing a BA (Hons) in Ceramics at Cardiff Metropolitan University in Wales, which she received in 2025. She has interned at Anderson Ranch Arts Center and Starworks Ceramics, and her work has been exhibited across the United States and the United Kingdom. by @kai.fukunaga

Just one month left to see “Dot. Dot. Dot.” at Starworks 🌟
This exhibition features the work of our 2025–2026 ceramic interns—Aislinn Baker, Kai Fukunaga, and Casey Mitchell—showcasing the ideas, techniques, and creative voices they’ve developed over the past year. While each artist brings a distinct perspective, their work is connected through playful surfaces, rich textures, and thoughtful exploration.

Stop by before the exhibition closes on August 8 and see what’s next for these rising ceramic artists.

Open to the public Monday–Saturday, 9am–5pm

Make a day of it! Our onsite Cafe & Taproom is open late with special events. Details at StarworksNC.org

@kai.fukunaga
@aislinnjaepots
@caseymitchhell

#starworks #ceramicart #ceramicartist #discoveruwharrie #ncarts by @kai.fukunaga

We are doing a show!!! Me and fellow interns @kai.fukunaga and @caseymitchhell are putting up our show Dot. Dot. Dot. next month and we are so excited! It’ll be June 22nd to August 8th and the reception will start at 5:00 on June 27th.
Big thanks to Kai for designing the posters :) by @kai.fukunaga

‘River Stones’, a series of new work dedicated to my time along the Taff River at Cardiff Met.

My first year at @csad_ceramics I would walk along the Taff River every morning to get to the university. The new country, new people, and new studies was exciting but at times overwhelming. Walking through the lush and overgrown path in the mornings to the sound of the river was a moment of calm and reflection to balance the day.

The Taff River became a focal point during my time in Cardiff. Cutting through the city, the river was a daily companion during my three years there. Only now that I have moved away do I realize it how much it defined my experience of the city.

Two more days to see the work at @beveregallery

Made at @starworksnc @starworksceramics by @kai.fukunaga

Take a closer look 👀

Each piece is composed of hundreds of tiny dots of clay, pressed together one at a time. Every dot represents a moment in time, a memory, an experience - on its own insignificant, but together holding meaning.

Now on view at @beveregallery until 31st of January

Made at @starworksnc @starworksceramics

#craft #contemporarycraft #ceramics #contemporaryceramics #ceramicart by @kai.fukunaga

It’s been a while 👋

My New Year’s resolution to post more to instagram has had a slow start but hopefully you’ll be seeing me more often 🩶 Wish me luck by @kai.fukunaga

Curvy 💚
Makes me miss the rolling hills in the UK 🇬🇧

#craft #contemporarycraft #ceramics #clay #stoneware #contemporaryceramics #ceramicart #sculpture #ceramicsculpture #craftsmanship #handmade #ceramicdots #dotsdotsdots #ceramicbasket #coloredclay #detail by @kai.fukunaga

I still can’t get over the translucency of these leaves 🌿 They seem to fading away, capturing a sense of ephemerality and transience. by @kai.fukunaga