Sakiyama Takayuki (b. 1958), Asymmetrical vessel with three distinct swirling carved and incised lobes, 2024, stoneware with sand glaze, 14 3/8 x 25 1/4 x 22 1/2 in.

Swirling Vortex: Sand and Waves
Sakiyama Takayuki
November 7 – mid-December 2024

Joan B Mirviss LTD is thrilled to present Swirling Vortex: Sand and Waves, Sakiyama Takayuki’s sixth solo exhibition with the gallery. Sakiyama continues to explore the meeting of waves and shoreline, drawing inspiration from the rugged coastal landscape near his studio on the Izu peninsula. His dynamic swirling sculptural forms and their carved linear banding evoking vortexes earned him a special mention from the prestigious Loewe Foundation Craft Prize in 2021. The prize jurors commented that his vessel “both invokes and inverts the seabed.”

Form and surface seamlessly mesh in the sculptural vessels created by Sakiyama Takayuki. His double-walled forms with cascading, undulating, carved ridges blur the boundaries between exterior and interior to a mesmerizing effect. Sakiyama achieves the sense of centrifugal motion in his vessels by first fashioning (from clay slabs) separate exterior and interior rings. He sculpts these with spirally diagonal irregular bands, moving along the exterior walls and continuing onto and around the interior. Then, he attaches a swirling base and an open “collar.” He seamlessly unites the segments with additional carved, overlapping bands until all the surfaces combine to create a veritable churning whirlpool. Sakiyama’s own glistening, sand-infused glaze further enhances the vessel surfaces. Their textures call to mind a rough, grainy beach or a Zen Garden’s raked, combed sands.

Joan B Mirviss LTD is delighted to once again showcase his latest powerful, swirling creations in this sixth exhibition with the gallery and warmly invites you to experience them soon!

To view these dynamic vessels and learn more, click here.