"9 Sprouts" Mosaic by Toyoharu Kii

Mosaic artist Toyoharu Kii is renowned for his ability to look for the intrinsic character of each tessera in his mosaic, and assemble them into elaborate patterns with movement and texture. This unique work of art is called "9 Sprouts", and beautifully exemplifies Toyoharu Kii’s expressive technique. He explains his inspiration for this mosaic, “After rice plants are harvested the lower cut parts of plants remain. This is a very familiar scene for Japanese people.”

A leader of the cross-cultural craft resurgence, Japan-based artist Toyoharu Kii creates his intricate mosaics with hand-cut Italian marble and smalti, Venetian glass made by the same Italian family for over 400 years. Using traditional Italian techniques, Kii’s art is nonetheless modern. It is monochromatic, abstract, and highly textured and highlights the involved and technical art of mosaic making.