"The Pieces Left" Mosaic by Toyoharu Kii

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.

In this mosaic entitled "The Pieces Left," Kii uses abrupt pattern shifts to create an illusion of one mosaic submerged in another. Resembling fallen brick walls, ordered tiles are presented as remnants of a complete whole, now scattered like rubble across a purely textural backdrop. Kii's balanced use of pattern and density creates a narrative of disrepair, where traces of the past are inevitably subsumed by nature.