B r e n da n L e e S at i s h J o h n s o n Ts a n g Kim Joon L au r e n t C r a s t e Livia Marin Ronit Baranga T a k u r o K u wa t a
I Lobo You seeks to explore and share some of the best projects within the art world. Open to various art form and expressions, this e-book includes some of the best projects by talented ceramic artists worldwide. With extraordinary techniques, these artists take ceramic art forms into another level.
highlight B r e n da n L e e S at i s h
pag. 04
J o h n s o n Ts a n g
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Kim Joon
pag. 09
L au r e n t C r a s t e
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Livia Marin
pag. 14
Ronit Baranga
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T a k u r o K u wa t a
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B r e n d a n L e e S a t is h Traditional prosthetics manga
Brendan Lee Satish Tang is a Canadian artist that creates really unique ceramic sculptures. Born to Trinidadian parents in Ireland, Brendan Lee Satish Tang is a ceramic artist who now resides in kamploops, Canada. His series ‘manga ormolu’ is a commentary on globalization examined through the relationship between traditional Chinese Ming dynasty vessels and techno-pop art of Japan. Tang casts traditional vessels and adorns them with prosthetics inspired by Japanese anime and manga, subverting the elitism of the vessels ‘with the accessibility of popular culture.’ The concept of adapting the ming vessels is designed to recall 18th century french gilded ormolu, which borrowed chinese vessel forms to act as curiosity pieces for aristocrats. Tang’s work has been showcased at several galleries all around the world.
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J o h n so n Ts a n g Humans beings objects
Johnson Tsang, is an Hong Kong sculptor specializing in ceramics, stainless steel sculpture and public art works. Tsang’s works mostly employ realist sculptural techniques accompanied by surrealist imagination, integrating the two elements, “human beings” and “objects”, into creative themes. Since 1993, Tsang’s works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Spain and Switzerland and collected by local and overseas museums and collectors. Take a look! Beggining with an “A Painful Pot” that the author describes as “… an sculpture to express how I feel about my country”. “Although killing takes place every day, we know that somewhere in this world, there are people who are extending a helping hand to others, working hard to save lives. I believe that violence, hatred, arrogance and fear will finally be converted into the positive energy of love, peace, eternity and compassion. The evil spirit will be enlightened and the world’s fate will then be totally changed. This work is dedicated to those who strive for peace.” “When I was about to go out in a rush, I was astonished by a withered rose in the vase. It was still in full bloom yesterday, how come it suddenly withers and falls? I slowed down my pace and wondered… Isn’t our life as magnificent as the rose? It lasts for a few decades but slips away like the cloud. Our life is full of joy and sadness. We have been pursuing personal fame and wealth. We have a lot to love, to hate and to cherish… and finally they all pass away with us, earth to earth, dust to dust. So why don’t we value each moment to make our life easier and happier? This rose is made of porcelain. Sculpturing on its petals are different facial expressions: pleasure, anger, sorrow and joy. Through this work, I try to reflect what we are experiencing in our life, which will ultimately wither, fall and pass away like the petals.” One of the most known must be the Yuanyang sculpture that he did it again, this time in Stainless Steel a more durable and shiny material. “I created this work with realistic ceramic sculptural technique, trying to simulate the flesh and blood with clay and ceramic glazes fired in different temperatures. The outcome is however surrealistic as the work has presented both the cause (the killing weapons) and result (the victims) together. The work expresses the idea that the concept of blood for blood will only intensify the hatred and extend it to eternity. In fact, those who kill inthe battlefield are at the same time the victims. Nobody is a winner in a war.”
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K im J oo n Fragmented nudity
Korean artist Kim Joon fabricates images of fragments of hollow porcelain that resemble nude bodies. Through a painstaking digital process, Kim coats the anthropomorphic forms in bold patterns from ceramic brands such as Villeroy & Boch, Herend, and Royal Copenhagen. What results are deceptively convincing surfaces complete with reflection and shadows. The artist’s exploration of tattoos stems from his experiences tattooing his peers while in the Korean military. In his earliest works, Kim grappled with the notion of tattoos as socially taboo in Korean society. He created sculptures that mimicked tattooed portions of flesh. In his hands, not only do tattoos reflect social habits and desires but they’re also a vehicle for transforming the body into a highly aestheticized object.
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L au r e n t C r a s t e Violent contextual deconstruction
Laurent Craste maintains an intense studio practice in contemporary ceramics while teaching his craft at the college level.
His work centers on the conceptual explorations of the multiple layers of meaning in decorative collectibles of the 18th and 19th centuries. These were items considered instruments of political power, ideological vehicles, demonstrations of ostentatious luxury and economic power but also as incarnations of emotions and experiences. Through the deconstruction and violent alteration of these objects’ formal structures and contextual subjects, he presents them freshly exposing new relationships between art and viewer. Craste have already participated in several exhibitions all over the world and he is also a winner of the prestigious Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramists.
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L ivi a M a r i n Dropping objects
Livia Marin employs everyday objects to enquire into the nature of how we relate to material objects in an era dominated by mass-production, standardization and global circulation.
She transforms readymade crockery and alters the placing and scale of their decorative patterns to present a series of undetermined objects that appear paradoxically as broken yet complete. She does this with techniques and strategies that are characteristic of Sculpture, Installation and Process Art. When dropping a ceramic plate or cup we’ve all braced for the familiar sound of impact as the object explodes into a multitude of sharp fragments on the kitchen floor. Livia Marin imagines a wholly different demise for ceramic bowls, cups and tea pots in this series of work titled Nomad Patterns. Each piece seems to melt onto a surface while strangely retaining its original printed pattern. Pieces looks like something that is about to collapse or has just been restored.
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Ro n i t B a r a n g a Complex psychological reality
Ronit Baranga is an artist from Israel who has monitored to carve a way to express complex relationships between psychological reality and imagination, two seemingly irreconcilable worlds, but which sometimes incorporate and attract.
From his sculptures arise hands trimmed escape and caresses her lips and eager to talk, seduce and maybe kissing. Ronit says: “The use of fingers and mouths in my work is full of intent and meaning. The fingers and the mouth are very sensual organs in the human body and are therefore very powerful as separated items from it. The “seamless” combination of these organs in plates or cups, appearing as one, creates, in my opinion, new items that “feel” their environment and respond to it.” The desire that ignites his work is also to enlarge the common relationship between human beings and their daily consumption in the splendor of cups and saucers. Artificial Porcelain hiding the appearance of their own autonomy, or longing for an emotional satisfaction with man. The artist also revels: “The combination of ceramic cups with fingers represent an idea of where the silence creates its own will give a chance to the cup to decide whether to stay or leave the scene … “
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T a k u r o K u wa t a Contemporary tea ceremony
Japanese artist, Takuro Kuwata was born in 1981 in Hiroshima and lives in Toki City. His work has been shown extensively in Japan as well as in many contemporary art museums.
Japanese ceramic techniques and aesthetic principles, both traditional and experimental, form the foundation for Takuro Kuwata’s otherworldly objects & vessels. His creations push the ancient medium to a riotous extreme, dancing between pop and Kogei (traditional craft). Kuwata presents contemporary textures and colors, inspired by the world around him. The vivid colors paired with the metallic glazes provide an at once rustic and futuristic update to the more austere aesthetic of traditional tea ceremony wares. Kuwata actually adds powdered platinum and almost pure gold on top of the cracked white glazed and refires it. In other works, the cracked mercury surface breaks on top, and spikes of the metallic substrate pierce through the surface, to melt at the bottom. Kuwata has pioneered the incorporation of needles employed in the construction of kilns, using them in the ceramic works to catch the glaze on its slide down, creating a textural marvel and mystery. Some of the sculptures are functional; others stand as abstract totems. c e r a m i c a r t. 1 9
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