MANA NAKAMURA • GLASS ARTIST

MANA NAKAMURA • GLASS ARTIST
AICHI • JAPAN 

Born in Hiroshima Prefecture, Mana Nakamura is a Japanese glass artist currently based in Aichi.

After completing her education at Toyama Institute of Glass Art in 2023, she spent 2 years training at the Seto Ceramics and Glass Art Center. She also received a scholarship to Pilchuck Glass School in 2022.
Mana primarily creates her work using a foam glass technique. While the conventional method for foam glass typically involves firing and shaping the material in a plaster mold, using a kiln casting, she instead shapes her foam glass through glassblowing.

She discovered that the finished texture differs significantly between an electric kiln and glassblowing, due to differences in temperature ranges and heat transfer rates. By utilising the characteristics of glassblowing, which involves heating the glass to about 1200°C, and by developing her own unique forming methods, she's been able to create glass expressions that, while still foam glass, offer a new texture and aesthetic.


We first encountered Mana in 2025 when we were meeting with her equally talented friend, ceramic artist Yuko Kan. Mana and Yuko are long time friends and Mana had kindly agreed to help translate for us. However we were thrilled to discover that Mana also had her own creative practice and we have been planning ever since to be able to show her work as well.

We met up with them both again in 2026 and were able to choose some of Mana's works for an introductory show. We're now very excited to be able to expand our DEA offering into the world of glass and to share her unique vision with our lucky customers.

EXHIBITIONS

2026 “Ancient Buddy Solo Exhibition”, Community store TO SEE/Kyoto, Japan
2025 “Chasing Foam Solo Exhibition”, Playmountain/Tokyo, Japan
2025 “Suicyu no ashiato Solo Exhibition”, EDANE/Osaka, Japan
2024 “Shizenkarano saisyu Solo Exhibition” Shinmachi BLDG/Gifu, Japan
2024 “Obake? Exhibition”/ PLAY museum Tokyo, Miyazaki Prefecture Art Museum, Miyazaki, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum Fukuoka, The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art
2023 “Texture Explorer Pop up” Sudachidou/Kyoto, Japan

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