Kuniaki Kuroki

1945 – Kuniaki Kuroki is born in Suki, in the province of Miyazaki.
His talent as a painter is clear from his student days at the local high school.
1963 – Aged eighteen, he goes to work for the Yamaya Glass Company (Tokyo), which is famed for its household furnishings and glassware. Glass fascinates the young man, who then dedicates long years to studying all the various techniques of the craft (blown glass, moulded glass, fused glass, sand finishing, etc).
1972 – He begins to exhibit his works in glass, his Dream immediately winning a special award at the Funabashi City Art Exhibition.
1977 – Winner of various awards, including the highest level of the Japanese Glassmakers Proficiency Test organised by the Ministry of Work; holds his first one-man show at the Yamagata department store in Miyazaki.
1980/1982 – Exhibits at the Triennale of Japanese Art Glass (1980) and the Exhibition of Traditional Manufactures (1981 and 1982) in Tokyo.
1984 – Leaves the Yamaya Company to dedicate himself full-time to his own art, organising one-man shows throughout Japan.
1985/1986 – Takes part in the project to re-introduce Satsuma Kiriko, a technique traditional to Kagoshima; the following year again exhibits at the Art Glass Triennale.
1988 – Begins planning the creation in glass of Hiroshige’s Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō.
1989 – Founds the Miyazaki Aya Glass Art Studio, which soon becomes the central point of reference for the art of glassmaking in Japan. In this period he achieves public recognition, with the Japanese royal family often visiting his studio in Aya.
1994/1999 – Exhibits in New York, Palm Beach and London, receiving such awards and prizes as: The International Arts and Culture Award (1994), the Rome Grand Prize at the Rome International Expo (1995), the Greek Government Prize at the Athens Art Expo (1998), the Asian Medal of Honor at the Asian Art Renaissance Exhibition in Bangkok (1999).
2000 – Holds a large one-man show to celebrate the opening of the Museum of the Art of Glass in Hsingchu City (Taiwan); in the autumn also exhibits at the European Expo in Ghent. In the meantime he receives awards from Korea and other countries in Asia.
2001/2006 – Produces the first works inspired by Hiroshige’s Fifty-Three Stations, which are exhibited in 2006.
2008 – In June, after twenty years of planning and work, he completes the entire series of the Fifty-Three Stations in glass, works which receive their first public display at Ca’ Pesaro (Venice) in November.