Tokujin Yoshioka

Tokujin Yoshioka, the Japanese designer and artist, was born in 1967. He worked under Shiro Kuramata and Issey Miyake and then established his own studio, Tokujin Yoshioka, Inc., in 2000. His experimental and innovative creations in art, design and architecture, with nature themes and transcending human senses, are acclaimed worldwide. He has received numerous international design awards, such as the 2007 Design Miami Designer of the Year prize. His “Honey-pop” paper chair (2001), the “Pane” chair based on bread-baking principles (2006) and the Glass project, which began in 2002, are art masterpieces that have been hailed around the world. Some of his most important works are exhibited in the permanent collections of the world’s best-known museums, such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, Le Centre National d’Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris, London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, New York’s Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Some pieces of “Water Block” are permanently displayed with masterpieces from Monet, Cezanne and Renoir in the Impressionist Gallery at the Musee d’Orsay, Paris. His important architectural projects include “Rainbow Church”- the stained glass structure composed of crystal prisms – and “KOU-AN Glass Tea House”, which was exhibited at Seiryu-den in Kyoto, a temple listed as one of Japan’s national treasures. Tokujin Yoshioka is a master in creating innovative, nature-inspired designs. He transformed the Monogram flower to create the Blossom Vase, a design from Louis Vuitton’s Petits Nomades collection. Each vase is a masterpiece of twisted glass, handcrafted by expert glassblowers from Murano, Italy. It can be used as either a vase, perfect for displaying a floral bouquet, or simply as a beautiful decorative object.