UPCOMING FAIR
The Winter Show
FORM not FUNCTION: Japanese Ceramic Sculpture
January 24 – February 2, 2025
Park Avenue Armory – Booth E5
643 Park Avenue, NYC
Presented at the Park Avenue Armory for The Winter Show 2025, FORM not FUNCTION: Japanese Ceramic Sculpture features extraordinary clay creations from over thirty master modern and contemporary sculptors, the majority of which have been specially commissioned for this exhibition. The unbroken history of clay in Japan spans two millennia, during which the country has refined its mastery of functional ceramic traditions. In the post-war era, this expertise expanded to include a growing interest in clay sculpture. Drawing inspiration from historical practices and aesthetics, Japanese artists began to create innovative sculptural pieces that harmonized form and surface. These groundbreaking works have transformed the way sophisticated collectors and curators perceive and appreciate ceramic art.
This exhibition showcases an impressive selection of masterworks from renowned artists and highly sought-after emerging talents. Several featured artists, including KOHYAMA Yasuhisa, KAKUREZAKI Ryūichi, and KONDŌ Takahiro, have trained in traditional ceramic techniques and have pushed the boundaries of those traditions, bringing them into the 21st century. Others have eschewed tradition by freely exploring the radical sculptural side of clay. A founding member of the avant-garde group Sōdeisha, YAMADA Hikaru was among the earliest clay artists to move beyond function and embrace pure artistic expression. In the decades since, this helm has been taken up by renowned female artists, including MISHIMA Kimiyo, FUJINO Sachiko, KATSUMATA Chieko, KISHI Eiko, and OGAWA Machiko, who were not bound by the traditions of familial and generational practices. Emerging talents TANAKA Yū, KINO Satoshi, and FUJIKASA Satoko continue to expand the horizons of sculptural clay today.
FORM not FUNCTION: Japanese Ceramic Sculpture invites viewers to engage with the narrative and artistry of Japanese sculptural clay.
To learn more, click here.
Recent Acquisitions
December 2024 – January 2025
We welcome you to view our recent acquisitions currently on view in the gallery and online.
To learn more, click here.
ZOOM GALLERY TALKS AVAILABLE TO VIEW
Toshiko Takaezu: Her Journey
Recorded on Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 5pm EDT
TOSHIKO TAKAEZU (1922-2011) was a celebrated and innovative Hawaiian-American ceramic artist who combined inspiration from her cultural heritage with Western contemporary art styles to create her unique, dynamic aesthetic. Initially, Takaezu produced utilitarian ceramics that evolved into her signature stacked, totemic standing, closed-vessel forms. She often displayed her powerful, boldly painted works together with her fiber hangings and paintings, artfully designing highly personal installations inviting conversations between the differing media.
During her lifetime, Takaezu was honored with multiple museum exhibitions and today her works can be found in the permanent collections of over 65 international museums including The Art Institute of Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; and the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park.
We hosted this panel discussion with the scholars and curators who produced the current, major retrospective exhibition Toshiko Takaezu; Worlds Within, now traveling the country and authored its accompanying thorough, scholarly publication.
PANELISTS:
Glenn Adamson, scholar and curator
Elisabeth Agro, Nancy M. McNeil Curator of Modern Contemporary Craft and Decorative Arts
Darlene Fukuji, Board Member, Toshiko Takaezu Foundation and grandniece of the artist
Carolyn Herrera-Perez, Curator of Glass and Ceramics, Chazen Museum of Art
Kathryn Goffnett, Associate Curator, Cranbrook Art Museum
Moderated by Joan B Mirviss
To view the recording of this talk, please click here.
Art of the People: Exploring the Mingei Film Archive
Recorded on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 5pm EDT
Perhaps one of the best-known aspects of Japanese ceramics in the West remains the Mingei folk art movement and its leading proponents, Hamada Shōji and Bernard Leach. Because of their advocacy and publicly facing roles, aided greatly by the medium of film, the timeless qualities of Mingei have figured prominently in the perception of Japanese art in the West throughout the twentieth century. For this unique ZOOM Gallery Talk, filmmaker Marty Gross shares with us his extraordinary mission to restore, record, preserve, and archive the films of and about Mingei from the early twentieth century in his project, The Mingei Film Archive. He will share with us rare footage of prewar Japan and of pottery production in centers such as Tamba and Mashiko. As a potter himself, Marty Gross shares with us how the Mingei Film Archive developed and how his personal journey merged his two great artistic interests to create this remarkable and irreplaceable resource for ceramics and for Japanese art lovers.
Panelist:
Marty Gross, filmmaker and founder of The Mingei Film Archive, based in Toronto, Canada
Moderated by Joan Mirviss
To view the recording of this talk, please click here.
