A meticulously curated gallery exhibiting work that is 10 years ahead of its time, designed to be “an art retreat” for art collectors equally ahead of their time. Unlike other BnA Alter Museum permanent exhibitions, vault biannually changes gallery directors and artists. Consider vault the residence of a leading avant-garde art collector friend who gave you their keys for a couple of nights. Exhibited are extraordinary works by up and coming artists available for purchase so that you may add to your own collection.

Current Exhibition (TILL WINTER 2025)

Artist: Jong YuGyong
Director: Haruka Kemmoku (oar press)

A space for travelers, bridging the politically complex "present" shaped by long histories, to connect past and future.

This exhibition showcases the work of Jong YuGyong currently based in Fukuoka, an artist born and raised at the cultural intersection of Japan and Korea as a third-generation Zainichi Korean (Korean with the status of special permanent residents of Japan). His work reflects on the constraints and borders of our times, drawing inspiration from the diverse movements and narratives of Koreans in northwestern Kyushu (the southernmost and third largest of Japan's four main islands).

The intertwined history of Japan and the Korean Peninsula, marked by cycles of war, persecution, and cultural exchange, is reminiscent of waves washing upon a shore. Porcelain fragments, like seashells shattered and left behind at the tide’s edge, bear witness to this shared past.

A small porcelain object, resembling a simple flower vase, was molded after actual "ceramic grenades" manufactured in the final years of World War II due to an iron shortage in Arita, Saga Prefecture.

Arita-yaki, a traditional Japanese craft that traces its origins to Korean potters brought to Kyushu during the late 16th-century dispatch of troops to Korea, reveals an unbroken cycle of cultural exchange and exploitation. The artist identifies the enduring connection between culture and war through this pottery, born from conflict and repurposed for war.

Jong's latest cyanotype (sun print) series is created from porcelain fragments he calls "Omura-yaki ears," remnants produced during the molding process. The blueprint motifs, which appear somewhat unclear while also echoing the blue of the Omura-yaki fired by the glaze, can be seen as the ears of people who have strayed from the boundaries or who have fallen out of history.


photo by Yuki Moriya