JB Blunk
Working primarily in wood and ceramic, JB Blunk (1926–2002) developed a distinct style that drew upon the Japanese principle of directness as well as an unfaltering reverence for the qualities of natural materials. Taking archetypal forms and translating them instinctively through raw, salvaged materials, Blunk produced a body of work that represents an innate expression of, and conversation with, nature.
Jochen Holz
Jochen Holz is a London-based master glass maker. His approach to design is guided by the lampworking process and the fluid potential of hot glass. Originally trained in lampworking in Germany, he later studied glass at Edinburgh College of Art and The Royal College of Art in London. Holz transforms high quality glass tubes into one-off glassware, bespoke objects, jewelry, and neon light sculptures.
Fritz Rauh
Like JB Blunk, Fritz Rauh (1920–2011) settled in Marin County in the 1950s, part of a dynamic art scene that extended south to San Francisco but maintained its own independent spirit. Rauh’s successful 1956 exhibition at San Francisco’s De Young Museum established him as a distinct voice in abstract expressionist painting in Northern California. Rauh will have a two-person show at Blunk Space in 2025.
Rick Yoshimoto
After moving to California from Hawaii as a young man, Rick Yoshimoto started working with JB Blunk in 1978 and lived in Inverness for almost forty years. It was during the first year of working with Blunk that he learned to use a chainsaw and began carving wood. Like Blunk’s, Yoshimoto’s practice is an amalgamation of craft, art, and design, and his indifference to these categories has imbued his work with freedom and humor.
Martino Gamper
London-based designer Martino Gamper’s practice includes interiors, design objects, and textiles of all scales and types. One of his foundational projects, ‘100 Chairs in 100 Days’, involved collecting discarded chairs on the streets of London and making one new chair each day from the old. Like Blunk’s, his work is playful, intuitive, and resourceful. Gamper used salvaged wood from local sawyer Evan Shively to produce cutting boards, wood-framed mirrors, and a series of benches for an exhibition at Blunk Space in 2023.
Norma Ashby
Norma Ashby (1935-2016) was a potter and artist who lived in Inverness. She and her husband Gordon were close friends of JB Blunk, who often traded ceramics with Norma. She ran a pottery and flower shop in Inverness Park in the 1980s and 90s.
Alana Burns
Expanding from a poetry practice, Alana Burns turned to sculptural and wearable works while maintaining a soft focus on nostalgia and time. Burns sources objects of nature and of memory for her work from anywhere, but is especially attuned to the delicacy and strength of shells, fossils, and minerals from the seaside. Back in Mexico City, where she lives and works, she assembles each object with these vestiges of archaeology and marine life together with fantastical shapes in silver, bronze, and gold. While staying at the Blunk House, Burns created shell-based tableware responding to Blunk ceramics and bowls. She also had access to Blunk’s personal collection of found objects, remnants of his own fascinations, which she thoughtfully incorporated into earrings and rings.
VIEW WORKS
RIO KOBAYASHI
Rio Kobayashi, who has both Austrian and Japanese ancestry, approaches his aesthetic influences and materials with reverent humor. Raised in Japan and now based in London, he crafts functional objects that are never too far from sculptures, embedded with joyful humor. During his stay at the Blunk House in 2024, Kobayashi sourced salvaged local redwood and hand-built a collection of custom furniture that bridges the gap between large-scale sculptures and functional objects.
