New York is awash in art early May and the Nippon Club Gallery on West 57th St. is no exception. They are presenting a concise overview of the stone sculpture of Osaka born artist, Hiroyuki Asano, who was schooled at the Osaka University of Fine Arts and the Carrera Academy in Italy. At first, Asano's works were carved in marble and present a soft profile. Returning to Japan in the early 1990's, with the economic climate and environmental focus, he switched to the virtually intractable and readily available granite. this resulted in geometric, abstract, rational forms. While his sculptures tended to be site specific, he carved smaller works for interiors and private collectors.

Participating in worldwide "sculpture symposiums," he won in Beijing and WuHu in China, Hyogo in Japan, Qingdao in China, Teruta in Italy, to name a few. Private commisssions followed, his most extensive being installed during the 2020 Pandemic year, seven outdoor works at an ANA resort. There have been variations from the initial design of single voids to two, three, to combinations of full voids to half voids. Generally, the circles are polished while the surrounding areas can be smooth, textured, or scored, or retain the stone's skin. More recent works exhibit his broken style which involves breaking the sculpture after it is carved and partially putting it together again. Many of the voids have holes, passageways of time and light, entry points to the universe, space travel without a ship. Asano's sculptures exude order, rationality and a Zen-like calm. Their precision and finish are a wonder to behold. One can stop, take a deep breath and admire them forever.

Asano hopes to pass on his legacy to younger generations in his role as Professor of Art at Tokyo Gakugei University in Koganei City, Tokyo, Japan.

Sculptures by Asano can be found at

            Hualien Sculpture Museum in Taiwan

            WuHu Sculpture Park in China

            Nam-Hae Sculpture Park in Korea

            Morikami Museum and Gardens in Florida, USA

            Cities in Germany, France, Canada, Netherlands, Italy, Turkey

Curated Exhibition by Carole Davenport Japanese Arts of New York City