Yuri Kobayashi is a furniture maker and sculptor based in Camden, Maine whose knowledge of traditional Japanese woodworking techniques informs her sculpture, installation, and furniture design. Her intricate wooden assemblages incorporating mortise-and-tenon joints, bent wood, or even kinetic elements “possess a spare elegance [that] is beautifully complex” (American Craft Magazine, Winter 2022).
Born in Japan, Kobayashi earned a B.A. in architectural design at Musashino Art University in Tokyo and then trained in woodworking at Shinrin Takumi Juku in Takayama City. She also holds an M.F.A. in furniture design from San Diego State University and for many years taught at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Kobayashi has a strong national exhibition record and has been awarded competitive residencies, grants, and fellowships at institutions including at the State University of New York-Purchase (Windgate Artist Residency), the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Arizona State University Art Museum.
In “Kobayashi’s outlook,” writes Patrick Downes, “there is always a link to be made between ourselves and nature, between our ideas and our hands.”
More at https://www.yurikobayashi.studio.
