• Toru's hollow structures give equal importance to the interior and exterior of his pieces
• Nature plays a central role in his practice as he works from a studio located by a forest
• He has developed a residency programme and a gallery space in his atelier

Born in Kyoto, Toru Kurokawa centres his ceramic practice on the creation of forms that embody both organic and geometric fluidity. His favoured technique, coil building, allows him to construct hollow-core structures with great technical complexity. While his early works in ochre tones evoked coral and plant growth, Toru's more recent pieces feature a matte black reminiscent of volcanic lava flows. "I am inspired by the ibushigawara tiles found on the temples and houses surrounding my atelier," he says. The elegant, quiet silver-grey colour of his works is achieved through high-temperature firing and carbon smoking. Both intuitive and methodical, Toru connects different volumes to one another, giving birth to autonomous and self-contained structures that push the boundaries of ceramic sculpture.