MACHIKO OGAWA SHIHOKO FUKUMOTO
2 - 24 October 2024
Erskine, Hall & Coe and Katie Jones present a joint exhibition of ceramics by Machiko Ogawa and Tsugi-Hagi cloth works by Shihoko Fukumoto.
15 Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, London, W1S 4SP
www.ehc.art | mail@ehc.art | +44 (0) 207 491 1706
MACHIKO OGAWA
For her second exhibition at Erskine, Hall & Coe, Machiko Ogawa has created two distinct bodies of work: eight teabowls in luminous platinum and white glazes, accompanied by five standing abstract forms in a striking blue, full of vitality and energy.
Ogawa wrote the following poem in association with her new work:
A little bit of black cobalt powder
Ash made by burning green plants
Pure white minerals extracted from the earth
Feldspar, limestone, kaolin
Mix it all together
Passing through a 1230 degree orange flame
The blue of the sea
The blue of the sky
The colour of violets
Is this magic?
Is this a miracle?
少しのコバルトの黒い粉
緑の植物を焼いてつくる灰 大地から取り出す真白な鉱物 長石 石灰石 カオリン 全部混ぜて 1230度のオレンジ色の炎を 通り過ぎると 海の青
空の青
スミレの花の色
これは マジック ？
これは ミラクル ？
Machiko Ogawa, 2024
SHIHOKO FUKUMOTO
Three large-scale Tsugi-Hagi cloth works by renowned artist Shihoko Fukumoto are displayed within this exhibition.
Tsugi-Hagi is a class of Japanese textiles that have been mended or patched together. Fashioned from old cloth, these textiles have become very popular with Japanese and international collectors over the past twenty years. Often marketed as ‘abstract art’ in the Western context, they are an important aspect of Japanese history and culture, revealing the resilience and creativity of working people living in harsh environments and with few resources.
Fukumoto re-presents these Tsugi-Hagi works, sewn with precise vertical and horizontal lines and with patches mending frayed areas, and that have developed complex, shifting shades of indigo over time. In addition, she has added small squares of contemporary material, dyed using the onepoint shibori technique — a method where fabric is bound at a single point to create intricate circular patterns. These additions allow her to create beautiful compositions. The contrast between the aged and freshly dyed indigo results in an astonishing sense of depth and space.
“My discovery lies in how the colours blurred by age combine with the transparent colour gradations that I dyed to meet as a single “indigo”, creating a spatial expression. It seems to resonate with the natural world of Japan itself.” — Fukumoto
SHF-0025 (Detail)
MACHIKO OGAWA
Sculpture (blue form), 2024 ceramic
41.5 cm high (MO-0064)
Sculpture (blue form), 2024 ceramic
41.5 cm high (MO-0067)
Sculpture (blue form), 2024 ceramic
42 cm high (MO-0065)
Sculpture (blue form), 2024 ceramic
41.5 cm high (MO-0068)
Sculpture (blue form), 2024 ceramic
39.5 cm high (MO-0066)
Bowl, 2024
Bowl, 2024
Bowl, 2024
Bowl, 2024
Bowl, 2024
cm high (MO-0062)
Bowl, 2024
cm high (MO-0063)
Tea Bowl, 2024
cm high (MO-0069)
SHIHOKO FUKUMOTO
Galaxy - II, 2023
Indigo (old Tsugi-Hagi patchwork
dyed cotton futon cloth)
176 x 210 cm (SHF-0020)
Hokuto (the Plough), 2023
Indigo (old Tsugi-Hagi patchwork dyed cotton hanging)
203 x 93 cm (SHF-0021)
Galaxy - VI, 2024
Indigo (old Tsugi-Hagi patchwork dyed cotton hanging)
176 x 97 cm (SHF-0025)
MACHIKO OGAWA
b. 1946
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Mineral Vein, Shibunkaku, Kyoto, Japan
Born in 1946 in Sapporo, a city of the Hokkaido Prefecture of Japan, Ogawa studied crafts at Tokyo University of the Arts and graduated in 1969. From there, she went on to study ceramics at l’École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art in Paris until 1971, and then throughout West Africa until 1975.
Ogawa’s work is deeply influenced by her travels as well as her fascination with fossils, minerals and the earth. She has explored many diverse places including Sub-Saharan Africa and South America.
Ogawa has been acknowledged for her unique and significant contribution to the arts. She received the Japan Ceramic Society Award in 2018, the Musée Tomo Award of Excellence in 2010 and the 58th Minister of Education and Culture Award for Fine Arts in 2008, among others.
2023 Darkness and Starlight, Nakacho Konishi, Tokyo, Japan
2022 Red Earth, Joan B Mirviss Ltd, New York, USA
2018 Into the Earth: The Clay Art of Ogawa Machiko, Joan B Mirviss Ltd, New York, USA
2017 Machiko Ogawa, Japan Art - Galerie Friedrich Müller, Frankfurt, Germany Machiko Ogawa, Shibunkaku, Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan
2016 Machiko Ogawa, Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, UK
2015 Machiko Ogawa: Crystals and Memories, Shibunkaku, Kyoto and Tokyo, Japan
2014 Lunar Fragments: Ceramic Sculpture of Ogawa Machiko, Joan B Mirviss Ltd, New York, USA
2013 Machiko Ogawa: Du temps cristallisé, Shibunkaku, Kyoto, Japan
2011 Machiko Ogawa: Archetypal Vessels, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan
2009 Fire and Ice: The Dynamic Clay Art of Ogawa Machiko, Joan B Mirviss Ltd, New York, USA
2002 Machiko Ogawa: Li2O • NaO • CaO • Al2O3 • SiO2 Breathing Bubbles, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and Hayama, Japan
Photography by Tadayuki Minamoto
Public Collections
Alfred Ceramic Art Museum, New York, USA
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, USA
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, USA
Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Gitter-Yelen Collection, USA
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, USA
Musée Guimet, Paris, France
Musée Tomo, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura and Hayama, Japan
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, USA
Sōgetsu Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Takamatsu, Japan
Tokyo Opera City Art Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA
For further information about this artist and a full list of their exhibitions, please visit https://ehc.art/artists/machiko-ogawa
SHIHOKO FUKUMOTO
b. 1945
Born in 1945 in Osaka, Japan, Fukumoto studied painting at Kyoto Municipal University of Fine Art and graduated in 1968.
Fukumoto began dyeing with indigo in the 1970s, and it is the nature of the materials she uses, including linen, hemp, pineapple fibre and loose weave mosquito netting that allows her to express her unique designs. In 2006, using hand-woven cloth sourced from old tunics, she picked apart this fabric, dyed and re-presented it, bringing it to life again as indigo tapestries for the 21st century.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022 Japan Blue, Verkehr Shimizu Port Terminal Museum, Shizuoka, Japan
2021 Shihoko Fukumoto: Japan Blue 2021, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Ginza Motoji, Tokyo, Japan
2020 Shihoko Fukumoto – Japan Blue and White, Amagasaki Cultural Center, Amagasaki, Japan
2018 Chushin Art Museum, Kyoto, Japan
2017 Mori to Tenku, Sakura Shop, Tokyo and Takamatsu, Japan
2016 Ginza Motoji, Tokyo, Japan
2015 Fukumoto Shihoko: Japan Blue, Art Gallery X at Takashimaya, Tokyo and Takashimaya Art Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
Fukumoto Shihoko: Japan Blue Book Release Exhibition, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2013 Fukumoto Shihoko: Nature from Hands, MEM, Tokyo, Japan
Meirin Tea Ceremony: Tocha Tea-Tasting Game in Tea Room Mist, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan
Ginza Motoji, Tokyo, Japan
Photography by Kotaro Tanaka Courtesy of ARTCOURT Gallery
2012 Fukumoto Shihoko: Natural Folk Textiles - From Material to Concept, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Fukumoto Shihoko - Yusoku, Sembikiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2011 Ginza Motoji, Tokyo, Japan
2010 Shihoko Fukumoto: Indigo is the Color of My Dream, Japanese Garden, Portland, USA
Fukumoto Shihoko: Blue Tea Ceremony Room, Musée de Somé Seiryu, Kyoto, Japan
2009 Fukumoto Shihoko: Star Light Shawls, Gallery Kei-fu, Kyoto, Japan
Fukumoto Shihoko Exhibition: Space-time within Native Work Clothing, Art Gallery X at Takashimaya, Tokyo, Japan
2008 Gallery Tazawa, Kyoto, Japan
Ginza Motoji, Tokyo, Japan
2007 Fukumoto Shihoko Exhibition: Sanctuary, Parks Hall, Osaka, Japan
2006 Fukumoto Shihoko, Galerie Ishibekoji Wada, Kyoto, Japan
Ginza Motoji, Tokyo, Japan
Public Collections
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, USA
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, USA
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Portland Art Museum, Portland, USA
Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden
Takashimaya Historical Museum, Osaka, Japan
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Wereldmuseum Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
For further information about this artist and a full list of their exhibitions, please visit https://ehc.art/artists/shihoko-fukumoto
by
Printed by Park Communications Copyright Erskine, Hall & Coe, Ltd
Photography by Stuart Burford
Design
Elisa Dublanc