Otani Workshop: Monsters in My Head

Monsters in My Head is the first solo presentation in North America of work by Japanese artist Otani Workshop. The exhibition invites visitors into an enchanted dreamworld, where myths, memories and materials come together to form a landscape—one that is strange, yet deeply familiar.

Entering the exhibition is like wandering into a forest of the imagination. Ceramic creatures in various scales and forms emerge from earthen mounds, tree stumps and scattered stones. The mazelike installation—constructed from materials foraged from local parks and forests—echoes Otani’s creative process, which transforms natural elements (clay, wood, flora) into figures brimming with presence and personality.

Visitors will encounter works inspired by the Pacific Northwest Coast, made during Otani’s Deer Lake Artist Residency at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in the summer of 2024. Other sculptures—produced in the artist’s studio on Awaji Island, situated on the Seto Inland Sea of Japan—draw on the deep traditions of ceramic-making but are shaped by his own intuitive experimentation. Ranging from human to animal-like figures, Otani’s ceramic works have a raw physicality, with textured and irregular surfaces, while his paintings capture more whimsical and adolescent sentiments of wonder, solitude, longing and hope.