Yuri Kobayashi’s curiosity about puzzles was inspired by her interest in working with wood, resulting in a visionary oeuvre of wondrous, delicate forms abstracted from the organic—human and natural—with masterful care and precision. Growing up in Japan, she was intrigued by wooden shrines, temples, and residences, particularly her grandparents’ old house. No surprise, then, that her BA was in architectural design from Musashino Art University. But after stepping into a woodshop and taking in the smells, the tools, and the numerous components prepared for assembly into an object, Kobayashi thought, “Yeah. Okay. This is what I want to do. This is my calling.” She earned a woodworking certificate from Shinrin Takumi Juku. From Japanese master Shoji Osamu she absorbed lessons in crafting with perfection, “and that was good,” she says.

Kobayashi moved to the US and earned her MFA in furniture design at San Diego State University while studying with Wendy Maruyama. “When I began,” she told American Craft in 2021, “I didn’t know English. I learned to communicate my feelings and thoughts in my work. The thoughts themselves are both simple and complicated, and, yes, poetic.” She learned to craft elegant, functional furnishings. Through working with Maruyama and other SDSU students, she realized: “It wasn’t always necessary to make a practical or utilitarian object. I could be okay with whatever I could make. And that was a breakthrough moment.”

Kobayashi’s sculptural works are miraculous compositions of numerous wood pieces, often of ash, conjoined by hand into an organic whole: a feat of endurance as well as imagination. Recently, Kobayashi has been bending her material, rendering increasingly complex forms through a more technically and physically challenging process. For more than a decade, she taught at Rhode Island School of Design. She’s received residencies at State University of New York at Purchase, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the Arizona State University Art Museum. Based in Rockport, Maine, Kobayashi is currently an instructor and lead studio fellow at the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, where she mentors others in developing a devotion to nature, rendering the imaginary in wood, and exploring the magic of craft.

yurikobayashi.studio | @ykcurio

Read more about the other 2024 ACC Awards recipients and honorees here.