Glasgow-born artist and metalworker Kathleen Reilly has called Japan home since receiving the prestigious award Daiwa Scholarship in 2019.
From 2020 to 2022, Reilly lived and worked in the city Tsubame Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, although she initially succumbed to the community’s charms after attending the “Biology of Metal: Metal Craftsmanship in Tsubame-Sanjo” exhibition at Japan House London in 2018. When she moved to Niigata, Reilly learned about the famous reputation with metalworking. She spent her time there gaining knowledge of and working with their skilled artisans – training in a cutlery factory to hone her craft and gain generational and technical knowledge that would influence and inform her production of her future works.
