Yoichi Ohira 1946–

Yoichi Ohira was born in Japan and moved to Italy in 1973. After working as an apprentice at the Kagami Crystal Company in Tokyo, Ohira graduated in Sculpture from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia with a dissertaion on the aesthetics of glass. In 1973, he began working with Egidio Costantini’s Fucina degli Angeli and participated in numerous collective and personal exhibitions, presenting sculptures made with the combination of plated metal and glass. In 1987, he started a collaboration as a designer with the Vetreria de Majo in Murano. That same year, Ohira was awarded the Premio Selezione at the Premio Murano. He began working as an independent artist in the early ’90s, creating magnificent one-of-a-kind pieces, which he made in collaboration with the skillful maestro glassblower Livio Serena from Murano. He has participated in the most important international exhibitions and his works are greatly appreciated by private collectors as well as many public museums. Yoichi Ohira’s work is, today, part of the permanent collections of museums such as the Victoria and Albert Museum of London, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Koganezaki Glass Museum in Shizoka, Japan, and many others.