"Hidden Movements" Mosaic by Toyoharu Kii

Intricate, ethereal and highly textured, the abstract compositions of Japanese mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii reflect a sophisticated approach to the technical art of mosaic making. Classically trained in Florence, Italy, Kii creates his modern mosaics using traditional techniques and materials, including hand-cut Italian marble and Venetian smalti glass. Eschewing the figural in favor of the abstract, his mosaics rely on contrasts of pattern and form to convey complex themes and achieve visual harmony.

Toyoharu Kii’s latest body of work “Geophytes” continues themes of rebirth and renewal. A reference to plants that regrow from hidden elements beneath the earth’s surface, the series celebrates the resilience of the natural world. Each mosaic is imagined as a landscape that documents a history of environmental damage due to human activity, and the subsequent return of nature as a restorative force. Through the juxtaposition of patterns and the interplay of order and disorder, Kii creates man-made “images of destruction” and finds hope in the future by “reconstructing nature.”

In this large mosaic entitled “Hidden Movements,” abstract shapes and geometric patterns are concealed within an expanse of orderly tesserae. As in other works, the grid of white marble represents a landscape shaped by human activity, a controlled and predictable built environment. Pockets of colorful smalti and irregular shapes interrupt this order, instilling the mosaic with energetic movement. These evocative moments of pattern and color suggest that nature is not missing from these settings, but has simply been suppressed. “Under the desolated land, something vigorous is moving,” writes Kii. “It might be born from the power of nature.”

“Hidden Movements,” 2023
Toyoharu Kii (b. 1953)
Marble mosaic and smalti.