Cooper Hewitt says...
Arata Fuchi was born in Japan in 1975 and lived there, graduating in 1999 from Tokyo Zokei University in the Industrial Design Department. From 1999-2003 he worked in the design section of a watch and jewelry company in Tokyo. From 2003-2005 he received his professional qualification and Goldsmith Diploma from the Regione Toscana professinal educational authority at the "Le Arte Orafe" school in Florence, Italy.
In 2006-2007 he trained further while working as a goldsmith in Florence, after which he spent a year in Japan further enhancing his understanding of Japanese techniques. In 2009, he returned to Italy where he has lived and worked since.
His work has been represented in exhibitions throughout Europe, and has been presented in New York and Chicago, and was featured in the June 2015 issue of Metalsmith Magazine.
He works to create new techniques, such as pulverization, an original technique used to apply silver powder to silver that is then fixed with heat. He has created variations on other techniques such as Shibuichi, a traditional Japanese technique with silver and copper for which he increased the precious metal content, and Wire twist mokumegane to which he adds wires to make the shapes and a higher standard of silver.
His 2015 statement about the history of his work reads:
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.
