This exhibition is the final event of Northern Clay Center’s year-long 20th Anniversary celebration. Guest-curated by D.H. Rosen, it features objects by younger, emerging Japanese sculptors who work in clay, outside the tradition of functional Japanese ceramics.
D.H. Rosen, guest curator Emily Galusha, editor
Chiho Aono Makiko Hattori Takashi Hinoda Rina Hongo Naoto Nakada Kyoko Tokumaru Jumpei Ueda
September 23 – November 6, 2011 Northern Clay Center Minneapolis, Minnesota
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
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Foreword EMILY GALUSHA
This publication and the exhibition it documents were made possible with the support of several generous donors to Northern Clay Center’s 20th Anniversary and exhibition programs. These include Martha and Bruce Atwater, the Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts, the Butler Family Foundation, Continental Clay Company, George and Frances Reid, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation. The artist residencies that preceded the exhibition were funded as part of the McKnight Foundation’s artists’ grants program administered by Northern Clay Center. In addition, this activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature from the Minnesota arts and cultural heritage fund with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008, a grant from the Wells Fargo Foundation Minnesota, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. © 2011 Northern Clay Center. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, write to Northern Clay Center, 2424 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis, MN 55406. http://www.northernclaycenter.org Manufactured in the United States. First edition, 2011 All dimensions given in inches: height precedes width precedes depth.
International Standard Book Number 978-1-932706-22-2
From September 2010 through November 2011, Northern Clay Center produced a number of special programs, projects, and exhibitions to celebrate our 20th Anniversary, continuing our practice of educating and delighting our constituents with the range of creativity in clay. These activities also addressed one of our key long-term strategic goals: to reflect both the local and global nature of ceramic arts today and in the future. The year began with the 2010 American Pottery Festival, which showed pots made by over 80 potters from across the country. The APF was followed by the retrospective exhibition, It Was 20 Years Ago Today, a sampling of some 100 sculptural and utilitarian works by artists and potters who have been exhibited at NCC over the past 20 years. The exhibition — New Millennium Japanese Ceramics — that is the subject of this catalogue was the closing program for our special anniversary year. It featured sculpture by seven younger and mid-career Japanese ceramic artists who are working outside the vessel or functional tradition so well-known in Japan. It was guest-curated by D.H. Rosen, an American artist, curator, and writer who has lived in Japan for the past 20 years. The artists in the exhibition work in forms and with ideas that are embedded in and expressive of a particular sense of material and pop culture, and play with and against Japanese traditions; they include a mix of people not shown previously in this country, and several who have had some exposure in the U.S. already. They represent an idea about ceramics very different from what we in Minnesota have come to expect Japanese ceramics to look like. Two of the exhibiting Japanese artists — Rina Hongo and Naoto Nakada — were in residence at NCC for three months, under the aegis of the Center’s McKnight residency program. They created new work specifically for this exhibition and for the 2012 McKnight exhibition. All of the artists selected sent work that challenges, delights, amazes, and confounds our expectations about what three-dimensional clay objects can look like.
Northern Clay Center, in its relatively short 20-year history, has established a reputation in the ceramics field for exhibitions that open wide the possibilities for expression in clay — from installations of unfired clay sculpture to high-tech industrial ceramics, to architecture-inspired sculpture and vessels, to sculpture that mixes clay and other media. At the same time, we remain true to our base in the Midwest, where the influence of traditional Asian pottery, especially Japanese utilitarian ceramics, is very strong, in part because of the ideas of mingei espoused and taught by Warren MacKenzie. Thus, we also exhibit pots in all their possibilities, from Neolithic to contemporary, strictly utilitarian to those that only reference function. Those exhibitions over the past 20 years have included work by over 16 contemporary Asian ceramic artists, ranging from Japanese Living National Treasure Tatsuzo Shimaoka, to emerging artist Ting Ju Shao from Taiwan, to such mid-career artists as Ken Matsuzaki, Satoru Hoshino, and Eiko Kishi from Japan, and Vineet Kacker from India. In addition to exhibiting their pots and sculpture, we have hosted these ceramic artists for three-day to three-month residencies, including lectures and workshops during their stay in Minneapolis. We expect and hope to continue the Center’s practice of keeping wide-open the doors to what talented artists and potters can do and say in clay. Our ability to do so is greatly aided by generous funding from several sources: Continental Clay Company, George and Frances Reid, and the Windgate Charitable Foundation have provided and continue to provide major support. In addition, several donors provided generous contributions to our 20th Anniversary exhibition program: they included Martha and Bruce Atwater, the Harlan Boss Foundation for the Arts, and the Butler Family Foundation. The NCC fellowship and residency program, funded by the McKnight Foundation, also supported this exhibition through support of the two resident artists. We thank all of them, the artists, and Mr. Rosen, for making this exhibition possible.
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
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New Millennium Japanese Ceramics D.H. ROSEN
Introduction The first time I worked with clay, I was 19 years old, in Japan as a study-abroad student at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka. I had never shown any artistic aptitude as a child, and I didn’t particularly think of myself as being good with my hands, but there was something about the feel of the clay and the rhythm of the potter’s wheel that simply clicked for me. I felt an immediate connection to the material and process. My ceramics teacher was a patient Kyoto craftsman who helped me to believe, for the first time, that it was possible to create beautiful objects with my own hands. Ceramics became an immediate addition to my weekly regimen; for the next ten years it was an important adjunct to my life, mainly in the form of weekends on the wheel and occasional late-night kiln firings at whatever community center or classroom would have me. My early teachers were traditionalists who instilled in me a deep respect for the material. I more or less followed a set of unspoken rules about how to treat the clay, remaining essentially a purist in this regard until many years later. In 2000, after a decade as a ceramics ‘hobbyist,’ I made the decision to pursue ceramic arts seriously. I enrolled at the University of Hawaii, Manoa (UH) as a post-graduate student to earn art credit and build a portfolio in preparation for an application to an MFA program. At UH, while there were certainly students doing nontraditional work in clay, there was also a group of ‘clay elitists’ with whom I strongly identified. Our beliefs included, but were not limited to the following: • Technique and craftsmanship were allimportant. The technical quality of a piece was more important than the idea/concept behind
it, and poorly constructed pieces were the object of ridicule. There was also a hierarchy among the male students determined by who could throw the biggest, cleanest forms on the wheel. • ‘Real’ ceramics were fired to cone 10 (high fire), and if a piece broke or had a flaw, you threw it away. Any altering/repairing of the work post-firing was viewed with suspicion and contempt. I also remember sensing a universal inferiority complex among the ceramic artists at UH. We perceived that our work was somehow less valued and less important than the work being done in other departments, clearly a reflection of values conveyed by the Western art world at large. The most accomplished artists in our field were still unknown outside the ceramics community. I distinctly remember having conflicting feelings of wanting to be accepted on equal grounds with other genres, but also of feeling proud of being a ceramics person and belonging to that community. After three productive years in Hawaii making mostly vessel-based forms, I began to feel stifled in my work, and was looking for a new direction. Suzanne Wolfe, one of the co-chairs of the ceramics department at UH, introduced me to Kimpei Nakamura who invited me to visit Tama Art University in Tokyo (Tamabi) where he was the head of the ceramics department. I was not prepared for what I found there. Up to that time, my experience of Japanese ceramics had been limited to mainly the traditional realm, which espoused a very clear set of rules regarding material and process. In contrast to these traditions, inside Tamabi’s classrooms, students glued crudely fired pieces together with epoxy,
Opposite: Installation view of New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels & Embracing Clay
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
used copious amounts of “room-temperature glaze” (also known as paint), and, perhaps most shocking of all, used metal bolts to assemble small parts that had been fired separately into massive sculptures. These were practices that would have unsettled even my more liberal peers in Hawaii, let alone traditionalists in Japan. Seeing a material I had come to view as sacred being defiled with such enthusiasm, in Japan no less, filled me with a complex mixture of unease and intrigue. Intrigue won over, and the following year I accepted an appointment as a research student at Tamabi. Looking back, I now understand that my move to Tamabi in 2004 spawned a search for identity as an artist that continues to this day. In retrospect, it is clear to me that clinging to the traditional values I had espoused in my early endeavors as a ceramic artist was partly out of self-protection. The set of prescribed rules about clay provided a defense against having to think outside these boundaries, a realization that is deeply personal and based on years of reflection. I continue to deconstruct my former belief system as I reconstruct a new one, holding onto values and practices that ultimately serve to help me both create more challenging artwork, as well as appreciate the work of others. While I cannot pretend to know the thoughts of the seven artists whose work is included in New Millennium Japanese Ceramics, I have had the opportunity to speak at length with most of them. I know that they have grappled with similar identity issues. This intense relationship with the material and its history has served all of them well in making truly new and revolutionary expressions in clay. The work in this exhibition is extraordinary on many levels, but is perhaps better appreciated within a historical context. While the following account is by no means a comprehensive study of
the history of contemporary Japanese ceramics, it provides a framework for looking at the work in this exhibition.
Sodeisha and Otis After World War II, Japan and America went through respective ceramic / art revolutions that challenged established values in the medium on both sides of the Pacific. In the early ‘50s in Japan, the members of the Sodeisha group, led by Kazuo Yagi, exerted an indelible influence on the world of Japanese ceramic art by promoting clay as a material for purely sculptural expression. The Sodeisha’s deconstruction of the vessel in Japan led to the liberation of the material and influenced a whole new generation of ceramic artists there. These artists met with resistance for their revolutionary use of a material that was previously reserved for traditional vessel work, and was regarded by many as almost sacred in that capacity. In America, Peter Voulkos began (as far as we know coincidentally) a similar movement in the mid- ‘50s as he and his students at the Otis Art Institute brought the freedom of the abstract expressionist movement to clay and inspired a generation of experimentation in the material. The context of his departure from tradition was similar to that found by the Sodeisha artists: the use of ceramic material was generally bound to traditions of utility, but with the added burden of operating within a Western culture that made a (generally ill-defined) distinction between fine art and craft. The abstract expressionist movement in clay was arguably the most significant force in opening up consideration of ceramics to include non-utilitarian expressions. While these movements occurred in slightly different time frames (the Sodeisha movement
predates the Otis movement by a few years), and apparently without any knowledge of each other, it is remarkable to note that both of these movements were stimulated by common influences: the painting and ceramics of Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. Although the Otis artists are often said to have been heavily influenced by Japanese artists, ironically, it was not the avant-garde Sodeisha members to whom they were looking in their early years. Instead, they looked to the pillars of the mingei movement, including Shoji Hamada with whom Voulkos had direct contact at the Archie Bray Foundation in the early 1950s. So whereas the Sodeisha movement represented a formalized rejection of mingei values, the Otis group found inspiration in this same conservative movement as a springboard for more avant-garde expressions in clay.1 In the West, Japanese aesthetics represented a different and exotic approach to clay. Voulkos started by making Japanese-inspired tea bowls which later morphed into his famed “Ice Buckets,” clearly inspired by wabi-sabi aesthetics and covered with traditional Shino glaze. In Japan, however, the tea bowl was politicized by Sodeisha as a symbol of creative suppression in the ceramic art world. “We resolved never to make tea bowls, whether for exhibitions or under any other circumstances,” wrote Yagi in his autobiography.2 This rejection of the tea bowl was not merely a matter of reexamining aesthetics or tradition. It was also an economic consideration, as tea bowl sales were the staple of any ceramic artist’s income, entrenched in society through the revered tradition and practice of the tea ceremony. Thus, the Sodeisha members were not just determined to revolutionize the forms and use of clay, they were also taking on the art hierarchy at large. Further evidence of this deliberate rebuffing of the art establishment was
the group’s denunciation of time-honored ceramic exhibitions such the almighty Nitten.3 Acceptance into these exhibitions was often a deciding factor in a potter’s career. Turning a wheel-thrown pot on its side (as was literally the case in Yagi’s revolutionary piece Mr. Samsa’s Walk), challenged the pivotal Japanese aesthetic of “Yoh to Bi,” the “crafts = beauty + utility” equation that was so revered in the Japanese ceramics world. In America, making abstract work in clay was in part a rebellion against art world and museum-based distinctions between craft and art, showing that the material used was less important than the ideas it was being used to express. Both the Sodeisha and Otis movements were material specific and represented a direct challenge to the ceramics canon. Both of these movements would also have immeasurable repercussions in the field of ceramic
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Notes 1. Louise Allison Cort, “Crawling Through Mud: Avant-Garde Ceramics in Postwar Japan,” Sixth Annual Dorothy Wilson Perkins Lecture [October 14, 2003 (accessed December 14, 2009)] <http://ceramicsmuseum. alfred.edu/perkins_lect_series/ cort/>. 2. Kazuo Yagi, “Watashi no jijoden” [My autobiography], in Yagi Kazuo Kokkoku no Hono (Kyoto: Shinshindo Shuppan, 1981), 15. 3. The English translation for the Nitten is the “Japan Fine Arts Exhibition.” It is self-described as, “the most popular of all the major art organizations in Japan.” The Nitten began in 1907 as a result of the First Ministry of Education Art Exhibition, but it is now an independent entity. As with any arts organization where money and fame are at stake, it is often criticized for the political nature in which participating artists appear to be chosen. “The Guide of Nitten,” The Japan Fine Arts Exhibition, accessed December 12, 2011, http://www. nitten.or.jp./english/index.html.
Kazuo Yagi (1918 –1979) Mr. Samsa’s Walk (Zamuza-shi no sampo) 1954 stoneware with JoKan glaze 10.8125” x 10.625” x 5.5” Private collection
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
Notes 4. From an interview with Kimpei Nakamura conducted by D.H. Rosen on May 14, 2006. 5. Kimpei Nakamura, Tokyoware: My Work, My Theory (Tokyo: Bijyutsu Shuppan-sha Co., Ltd., 2005). 6. From an interview with Kimpei Nakamura conducted by D.H. Rosen on May 14, 2006. 7. “Cultural Roots and Contemporary Expressions,” Office for the Arts at Harvard [2004 (accessed December 14, 2009)] <http://www.fas.harvard. edu/~ceramics/japan/japan. html>.
arts around the world. The Otis group generated a movement in clay that continues in America to this day. It has been over 50 years since Voulkos set up the ceramics department at Otis, but many of the artists from this group continue to be influential artists in the field, pushing boundaries, and receiving critical acclaim. Similarly, the Sodeisha group was pivotal in fueling the imaginations of next-generation ceramic artists. These artists would go on to define the contemporary ceramics movement in Japan in the ’70s and beyond.
Tama Art University and Kimpei Nakamura The tradition of functional vessel ware was so vast, rich, and rigid in Japan, that even twenty years after the Sodeisha members began the “liberation” process, the very idea of using clay for sculpture was still considered almost sacrilegious. Tamabi’s own Kimpei Nakamura continued the work of Sodeisha in his defiant efforts to see that nonfunctional ceramic art would be taken seriously in mainstream Japan. In the process of trying to break down traditional boundaries, his work was met with suspicion and scorn from the established Japanese ceramics community: Most of the time I was wondering when I would get fired. I was also arguing with everyone and inviting innovative artists rather than established traditionalists. This caused problems. Tamabi is established now, but at the time, there was no contemporary ceramic scene. What we did wasn’t taken seriously and we were basically looked upon as outcasts. It wasn’t until the late ‘80s that people really starting taking us seriously.4
The Sodeisha artists had earlier decried the revival of sixteenth century-style forms in Japanese ceramics, on the grounds that such a movement pandered to the emotional responses of a nostalgic Japanese audience. Nakamura then picked up where Yagi left off. He formalized this argument in public statements and published writings, arguing that the revival of old movements in ceramic art, as per the Living National Treasure system, was an exercise in kitsch. He wrote: Japan has a wonderful tradition of ceramics. And still today, the large part of Japanese ceramics follows in the footsteps of the ceramics aesthetics established in the Momoyama (fifteenth century) or Edo (seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries) periods. But, no matter how much reverence you may have for “tradition,” when you try to look back, you will never be able to experience the “necessities of the times” under which those great precedents were created. Therefore it is impossible to surpass the originals. Your results will always be those of a follower, relevance for the present will fade, and an element of kitsch will invariably enter your work.5 While I do not agree with Nakamura’s assessment that making traditional art in a contemporary context is necessarily an exercise in kitsch, I interpret his rejection of tradition as a desire to create work that is relevant to the times and to find a place in the ceramic art continuum. Born the heir of a third-generation Kutani-ware potter, Nakamura was making a statement in the very way he used clay; his break with tradition was deliberate and calculated.
In 1969, Nakamura received a grant from The JDR 3rd Fund (now the Asian Cultural Council) to travel to America and study ceramic arts. This was at a time when he was feeling especially stifled creatively and looking for his own voice in ceramics. An interesting side note to this story is that Nakamura first approached mingei patriarch Shoji Hamada for a recommendation letter, but his request was denied. Hamada reportedly told Nakamura, “there is plenty to learn in Japan without going abroad.”6 Not to be defeated, Nakamura wrote directly to Paul Soldner, without an introduction, and described his desires to see for himself the movement in America he had heard so much about. Soldner was moved by Nakamura’s enthusiasm, sensing the artist’s struggle to find his own voice in a Japan whose ceramic environment was unsympathetic at best. Nakamura received the scholarship with Soldner’s recommendation and headed straight to Berkeley where Peter Voulkos was teaching, having left Otis after endless fighting with the establishment there. Berkeley in 1969 offered Nakamura a front-row place in the ceramics revolution that was taking place there, an experience that changed his life forever. Thirty-five years later at a Japanese ceramics symposium at Harvard University, he would present a paper ironically entitled, “Without My Experience in America, I May Have Ended Up a National Living Treasure.”7 Nakamura returned to Japan in 1970 determined to find a venue to express his new vision in ceramics. He went door-to-door from university to university, speaking about what he saw in America and the need to bring Japanese ceramics into the twentieth century. The leaders at Tamabi listened. The following year a new ceramics program spearheaded by Nakamura was founded as
a subsection of the oil painting program. Nakamura would go on to build a ceramics program unlike any other in Japan. While first-year undergraduate projects at schools such as Tokyo University of the Arts gave assignments such as throwing 500 bowls, Nakamura completely renounced the instruction of technique. Instead, he encouraged his students to think beyond the vessel. They were first to come up with ideas and then think about how to bring those ideas to fruition. His students enjoyed a freedom with the material unprecedented in formalized higher education in Japan.
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Kimpei Nakamura (born 1935) Tokyoware Explores the Present with Meta-ceramics 1993 Photo by Etsuhiro Sasaki
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
Notes 8. From an interview with Masayuki Inoue conducted by D.H. Rosen on July 4, 2007. 9. From an interview with Yo Akiyama conducted by D.H. Rosen on October 24, 2008. 10. Ibid. 11. Kiriko Nishida, Makiko Sakamoto, and Hiroki Miura, Human Form in Clay — The Minds Eye (Shigaraki: The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, 2007), 92.
Masayuki Inoue (born 1957) H-101 2010 ceramic
Nakamura has since retired, and his successor Masayuki Inoue has become the head of the ceramics program at Tamabi. Nakamura had given his students so much freedom in clay that they had no idea what they were doing could be interpreted as controversial. Nakamura’s first de facto apprentice and current head of the ceramics department, Inoue described his experience at Tamabi as follows: I had no idea what I was doing at first. That is, I wasn’t thinking about genre or the category of my work, so I was surprised by the reactions of conservative art critics who looked at my work with a cold eye…. “Why are you doing this with ceramics? Why aren’t you using a wood-burning
kiln?” they’d say. Until that point I wasn’t conscious that I was working within a certain genre or context.8
Kyoto I return now to Kyoto where we began with Sodeisha. The current head of the ceramics department at Kyoto City University of the Arts is Yo Akiyama, one of Yagi’s pupils in the ’70s. Akiyama’s work is fierce in its exploitation of the material. His process involves applying a blowtorch to raw, wheel-thrown clay bodies which force-dries the “skin” of his meaty vessels. He then cuts and alters the forms, twisting and turning them inside out to create cracks and fissures in his surfaces that give the work an aged, geological look. Although his techniques are brazenly unconventional, they were born from a profound and long-studied knowledge of the material. A student at Kyoto Geidai himself in the ’70s, Akiyama studied under a formidable team of professors from a broad range of backgrounds. He said: This was one of the fundamental characteristics of Kyoto Geidai that I believe is still true: there were instructors with completely different personalities and viewpoints, as well as a craft room. On the one hand there was Kazuo Yagi, and on the other, there was Shin Fujihira, whose style was very decorative and poetic. Then there was Yutaka Kondo who made extremely modern work using extremely traditional methods. What I thought was great was that at no point was everyone merely acting according to Professor Yagi’s direction. Professor Yagi could say one thing, but the other instructors would say something completely different.
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It was tough for the students, but they were left to think on their own.9 The winds of change had come to Kyoto in the form of Sodeisha, but they had by no means extinguished the fire of tradition in the ancient city. This mixture of old and new created an environment in which the young Yo Akiyama would receive both a formal education in clay and the freedom to push the traditional boundaries of the material itself. The result is a body of work that today wins accolades both in and outside the ceramics community. Akiyama’s departure from the world of traditional ceramics is no accident. The artist himself never intended to make ceramic art; his intentions were to make art using the material of clay. While he recognizes that the material is pivotal to his particular expression, Akiyama is not interested in being categorized by his material; nor is he intent on avoiding the label of ceramic artist. Instead, Akiyama is content to do his work the way he wants to and to let his audience determine to which category it belongs. As he said: The words “art” or “ceramics” are systems that people and history have created. They are reinforced in an exchange among those with the common recognition of the definitions of what ceramics is and who ceramists are. I do not explain to people that I am a ceramicist or a sculptor.... I’m clearly using the materials and processes associated with ceramics, so I do not mind if people call me a ceramicist. But others call me a sculptor.10
Exhibition Artists Another artist from Kansai (Western Japan) is Takashi Hinoda, whose sculpture is included in New Millennium Japanese Ceramics. He works almost exclusively in clay, save for a few drawings added as an extension to ceramic installations; his mastery of the material is clear in his flawless forms. But unlike Akiyama, Hinoda does not celebrate the material in his finished works. If anything, his forms leave the viewer unsure of the materials used. Hinoda himself is quoted as saying, “‘I am particularly interested in trying to eliminate all traces of the artist’s hand and the physical feel of the clay.’”11 However, the end results are clay forms that have a freshness, even a shock value because they are made of clay. Whereas Akiyama’s work speaks boldly about the material, Hinoda’s work is more likely to elicit a response such as, “This is clay?!?” The fact that his figures are ceramic certainly adds to their intrigue. Drawing on contemporary Japanese art forms, Hinoda’s influences clearly come from outside the realm of craft, and yet his works are masterfully sculptured ceramics. The act of bringing new art to this old material gives Hinoda’s work an additional edge. At the same time, the category of ceramics brings along with it a set of limitations in the art world that make it hard for Hinoda to push this
Installation view of Takashi Hinoda’s work
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
groundbreaking work forward in the world of contemporary art. He explains: What I’m always conscious of is that I am always on the border [between ceramics and contemporary art]. I think that’s the only way to produce bold works. As long as you’re protected, you can only do work within those confines. What then becomes my guide is the fact that I’ve experienced what I wanted to experience and considered clay as the best medium to bring my ideas into fruition…. It doesn’t feel right for me to have the clay as my first priority, followed by what I want to express. I have the image or concept that I want to create, and my relationship with ceramics needs to be to be utilized as a set of techniques and materials to realize that end, or else it feels backwards to me. And if I’m told that’s not ceramics, well, I have no choice but to say, I guess it’s not.12 Kenji Kaneko, who is considered by many to be Japan’s premiere authority on the ceramic arts, explains how he categorizes ceramic art versus contemporary art — for him this does not have as much to do with material as intention. He said: “There are two ways of forming something. On one hand, you have an image in your head, and to materialize that image, you choose a material to work with. On the other hand, you start with a material, and then begin to instill an image or concept within the material. The latter is ‘Craftical Formation,’ while the former is fine art. Many things fall under Craftical Formation. Sculptural craft, avant-garde
craft, traditional craft, etc, as long as the material comes first. In regards to ceramics, clay must come first.”13 With this definition, we can infer that according to Kaneko, Akiyama’s work is ceramic art, whereas Hinoda’s work would fall into the category of fine arts. I find this categorization of little value except in that it helps us understand academic and societal interpretations of the ceramics arts, and how these interpretations might influence artists. Kyoto-based ceramic artist and New Millennium participant Jumpei Ueda is keenly aware of the history and cultural nuances of ceramic art and leverages them in many of his works. Like American ceramist Richard Notkin, he uses the iconic teapot to comment on contemporary culture and times, with a subtle subversion of the teapot form itself. None of the three teapots included in New Millennium function as teapots, but they do function as commentary on cultural icons and history. Ueda explains: There’s an invisible hierarchy in Japan, and ceramics is at the bottom. I was trying to explore how we feel about that, and how many artists’ identities are formed in response to that. I was a hot-blooded youth thinking about these things. I think from the perspective of those in the art world, these questions are trivial. But at the time I wanted to defeat contemporary art. Contemporary art is clearly fast-paced, and it’s also deep in a variety of ways. I always thought that we needed to do something in response.14
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Notes 12. From an interview with Takashi Hinoda conducted by D.H. Rosen on October 25, 2008. 13. Wahei Aoyama, “Interview with Kaneko Kenji,” Japanese Ceramics Now 9 [February 4, 2005 (accessed December 14, 2009)] <http:// www.e-yakimono.net/html/ jcn-9.html>. 14. From an interview with Jumpei Ueda conducted by D.H. Rosen on February 11, 2009.
Opposite: Takashi Hinoda It's Uneasy Even Being in the World
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Notes 15. Ibid. Strictly speaking, Kintsugi [literally “golden joinery”] is a method used to reassemble the shards of a single pot, while assembling the shards of several different pots to create a new piece is referred to as Yobitsugi [literally “calling together joinery”]. In this sense, Ueda’s work would better be referred to as an example of Yobitsugi joinery. This is not a device original to Ueda. In the past, tea masters would purposefully break precious tea bowls in order to recreate them in this fashion.
Above: Installation view of Jumpei Ueda’s work Center: Jumpei Ueda Patchwork Skin 2005 porcelain Opposite: Jumpei Ueda Quiero Quiero
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
Earlier work by Ueda used the traditional technique of Kintsugi or Yobitsugi, a method of joining ceramic shards together with lacquer sprinkled with powdered gold, in order to recycle the remains of precious vessels. In Patchwork Skin, Ueda intentionally destroys molded porcelain casts of his own face and mixes them with fragments from casts of other people’s faces.15 The resulting form sends a potent message, both as a metaphor for the contemporary ceramic artist’s fragmented identity and because the very way in which it was built cites the history of the craft as one of the causes for this identity crisis. Ueda’s newest work, included in this exhibition, was created during an extended residency in Mexico. A number of the pieces are based on visual and verbal puns that cross Japanese and Spanish languages and cultural references. Abocado, Abocado shows two lawyers (abogado in Spanish) shaped like avocados (abokado in Japanese) who seem to share some odd
Siamese-twinned destiny (abocado in Japanese). His piece, Quiero Quiero, is layered with cultural, visual, and verbal references. The figure is a bear disappearing into a mountain; in Japan, the bear is the god of mountains. This bear has exquisitely rendered hands, which from one angle look as though they are raised in supplication; from another, they are clearly in a position to hold a rifle. Quiero in Spanish means “I want.” Its close homonym in Japanese means “let it disappear.” The eyes and the mouth of the bear are empty holes, in reference to haniwa sculptures, ancient Japanese tomb figures that had such holes for eyes and mouths. The entire figure is simultaneously haunting and tender. Not all of Ueda’s work references the ceramic arts directly, but for me, his best work shows both his exceptional craftsmanship, and profound understanding of the history and cultural implications of the material. This combination lends his work a potent expression unique to clay.
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
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For Chiho Aono, clay is both a material choice and a conceptual one, as is apparent in both her work and her statements. Says Aono:
Installation view of Chiho Aono’s work
When I hear other ceramic artists talking, I don’t feel like I am one of them. I didn’t start by making vessels, and technique is not so important for me. Sometimes I feel that in the world of Japanese ceramics, there is a tendency to focus more on showing off technique than artistry…. I think I use this material because I enjoy the process involved, but that doesn’t mean that I want the finished product to be limited to being viewed only within the realm of “ceramic art.”
Aono’s dripping, oozy, seductive forms sit in contradiction to our expectations for what clay naturally does. The ends of these amorphous, beautifully glazed blobs stop just short of resting on a surface, raising the question of how she made the material defy gravity while it was wet. They look as if they should be soft and pliable, but we know they are not. It’s as though she was able to freeze the idea of pliable softness in one of the hardest materials available. The piece shown opposite (and above), which is riding on a swing, assumes a biomorphic quality: what kind of creature could or would ride on a swing? Will it flow further until it reaches the ground?
Opposite: Chiho Aono Swing 2
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Installation view of Makiko Hattori’s work Opposite: Makiko Hattori Shirushi
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
I did not know Makiko Hattori personally before this exhibition; I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with her at length about her work or her process, but I know that she began to develop her intensely intricate forms in graduate school. Like Chiho Aono, Hattori’s work could only be done in clay to achieve this form and effect. As can be seen in the pieces in the exhibition, they keep getting more and more detailed. Hattori’s forms are not functional, but they clearly draw inspiration from the vessel, and her mastery of the material could
rival any National Living Treasure. She rolls out very thin slabs of porcelain, then cuts it, and forms the tiny jagged flowers that cover the surface of her vessels. As does Aono, she plays with the difference between what we see and what we think the material should or does feel like. The delicate flowers on the surface of her vessels have almost a velvet visual quality, but they are very sharp to the touch. I have listened to her explain the process through which she realizes these magnificent forms, but they still remain a mystery to me.
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
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Kyoko Tokumaruâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works are equally thorough in their intricacy and attention to detail, but she draws her subject matter from organic forms. Blooming flowers, roots, ivy, and other porcelain foliage meander and intertwine in ebullient botanical creations that balance the inherent organic nature of the forms with the relative sterility of unglazed porcelain. The resulting works are like new breeds of plants engendered
Installation view of Kyoko Tokumaruâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work
with a life of their own. Tokumaru describes her creative process as a journey inside herself, by which she can feel her inner emotions being transferred into the clay through the touch of her hands. This ambiguous growth process is inherent in her work, and invites introspection on the part of the audience as well, transporting the viewer on a trip to a place where new forms of life and possibilities in porcelain exist.
Opposite: Kyoko Tokumaru Hana Hiromogi (Flower Offering)
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Installation view of Rina Hongo’s work Opposite: Rina Hongo The Narrow Gate
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
I was drawn to Rina Hongo’s work because it speaks so clearly about the material. Her work simply has to be made of clay, and her organic forms speak of the expressions that clay captures so well — creation, decay, destruction, nature, and the earth itself. Her process is also unique to the material, making beautiful use of both surface and interior. She crafts her forms by coiling rolled up newspaper dipped in slurry (liquid clay), with a top layer covered by cloth imprinted with pattern. The newspaper and cloth burn out in the firing, leaving an imprint of the images and texture of the cloth on
the top, and stratified layers of clay underneath that look as if they will crumble on touch. Again, looks are deceiving; while these pieces are brittle and fragile, they also are very tough. The piece illustrated opposite suggests both a three-dimensional infinity symbol and the precarious balance of two forms simply leaning against each other. When the forms appear to be made of shards of ceramic material, with no connecting tissue, the balance is made all the more delicate. At the same time, as one looks into the inside of the two circles, there is a feeling of infinite depth.
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
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Naoto Nakada’s work stands out in this exhibition not for its craftsmanship, but for its defiance of craft. He purposefully leaves evidence of the process of creation and forces viewers to look beyond the physical forms to decipher their meanings. His work is intensely personal, and like Ueda’s, it is largely a response to his daily experiences. Take a look at his Minnesota Glasses (opposite top right) to get an idea of his perspective of the world while he was in residence at Northern Clay Center. A major piece in the exhibition continues a body of work Nakada has been developing for some time. TWINS (for Maple in
Naoto Nakada Detail of TWINS (for Maple in Minneapolis)
Minneapolis) consists of two figures of dogs, which are themselves constructed from an agglomeration of cast forms of different kinds of dogs. This piece follows in the track of his Tokyo Tower sculpture, made from cast cell phones, which depicts the central cell phone communication tower in Tokyo. It also follows the track of an earlier piece comprising a pair of standing twin babies, which reflected his interest in the idea and nature of twin-ness; each of the figures was constructed from casts of babies (dolls). His work requires a kind of decoding of images and symbols, but the result is a witty and sometimes humorous commentary on culture.
Opposite: Installation view of Naoto Nakada’s work
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
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Resumés Chiho Aono
Born 1974 | Yokohama, Japan Education: 1999 MFA, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan | 1997 BFA, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan | 2008 –11 Artist in Residence, Charlotte Wiesmann Studio, Linz, Austria | 2009 Master student of Plastic Concept / Ceramic, University of Arts, Linz, Austria Solo Exhibitions: 2009 Tropfenskulpturen, Galerie Zauner, Linz, Austria | 2009 Salzfertiger Haus, Gmunden, Austria | 2007 Gallery Motomachi, Yokohama, Japan | 2006 Gallery Sou, Kunitachi, Tokyo, Japan | 2004 exhibit Live II, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan | 2003 Sudou Museum, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan | 2002 exhibit Live I, Ginza, Tokyo, Japan | 2001 Toki-artspace, Tokyo, Japan Group Exhibitions: 2010 The Pleasure of Tea Ceremony, Gallery Utsuwa-kan, Kyoto, Japan | Art fair Linz, Landes Gallery, Linz, Austria | Topseller – Geld, Wirtschaft & Freunde, Galerie OÖ Kunstverein, Linz, Austria | 2009 6th International Ceramics Biennale, Kapfenberg, Austria | 6th International Ceramics Biennale, Keramikmuseum, Westerwald, Germany | The Power of Decoration – A Viewpoint on Contemporary Kôgei, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan | 2007 4th World Ceramic Biennale, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Korea | The 43th Kanagawa Art Exhibition, Yokohama, Japan | 2006 Clay Work by Freeter, Aoyama,Tokyo | Art in the traditional houseOhtsukasaisyoudo ruins Park, Yokohama, Japan | 2005 Wave Age, Sudou Museum, Tokyo, Japan | Preference, Sanai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | International Ceramics Festival 2005, Mino, Japan | The 41st Kanagawa Art Exhibition, Yokohama, Japan | Multiple, San-ai Gallery, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan | 2003 Message from young artist, Sudou Museum, Tokyo, Japan | Peace of One Hundred Years – Treasure, exhibit Live I, Tokyo, Japan Awards: 2010 Japanese Government Overseas Study Programme for Artists | 2005 The 41st Kanagawa Art Exhibition (second prize) | 2003 Message from young artist, Sudou Museum (second prize) | 1999 “Ichiro Fukuzawa Prize” for graduating at the head of Ceramic class.
Conclusion I have to say that it was nearly impossible to choose just seven contemporary Japanese ceramicists from among the dozens of young artists doing exciting work in clay today. However, I think this group offers an excellent, albeit idiosyncratic and adventuresome representation of many facets of contemporary sculptural Japanese ceramics. These artists show a level of craftsmanship and mastery of the material difficult to find outside Japan; their conceptual and thought-provoking pieces reflect many of the concerns in mainstream contemporary art. In conclusion, I would like to thank Kimpei Nakamura for introducing me to the world of contemporary sculptural Japanese ceramic art. Although not all of the artists in this show were directly influenced by him, it is safe to say that this exhibition would have been impossible without him. If I had to make a concise summary of Kimpei Nakamura’s message to his students, I would say that his most potent message was to strive to do work “pertinent to the times.” Although this at first seems like a simple order to follow, unlike a traditional craftsman whose very means of instruction would be aimed at maintaining the Sensei’s forms, Nakamura was directing his students not to do what he did. In Nakamura’s time, challenging the traditions of ceramic art was timely, it was pertinent, and his disciples expanded on these ideas in a way that spoke to their generation. As nonfunctional ceramics become more and more mainstream, it will no longer be enough just to be defiant of the traditions of the past. Instead, ceramic artists of the new millennium will have to look to the future as they continuously redefine themselves.
I would like to thank Northern Clay Center for inviting me to curate this revolutionary show, Dai Ichi Arts in New York City, which graciously loaned us several of Takashi Hinoda’s pieces, and all of the participating artists. I would also like to give my humble thanks to the Clay Center’s extended family whose hospitality to me and the visiting artists from Japan was truly overwhelming.
Makiko Hattori Born 1984 | Mie, Japan Education: 2009 MFA, Aichi University of Education, Kariya, Aichi, Japan | 2007 BFA, Aichi University of Education, Kariya, Aichi, Japan Solo Exhibitions: 2008 Earth Expressions, Frill Ceramics, INAX Galleria Ceramica, Tokyo, Japan Group Exhibitions: 2010 The Power of Decoration: A Viewpoint on Contemporary Kogei, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan | 2008 Taiwan Ceramics Biennale, Yingge Ceramics Museum, New Taipei City, Taiwan Awards: 2007 45th Asahi Ceramic Competition, Aichi, Japan | 2006 Kyoto Governor’s Prize, 40th Kyoto Authoress Ceramic Competition, Japan
Takashi Hinoda Born 1968 | Kobe-city, Japan Education: 1991 BA, ceramics, Osaka University of Arts, Osaka Prefecture, Japan Professional Experience: 2002 – Present Lecturer, Kyoto Saga University of Arts. Kyoto, Japan | 1994 – 95 Artist in Residence, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2011 Alternative Muscles, Imura Art Gallery, Kyoto, Japan | 2010 wound fever, Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan | 2009 Allegory Exploded, INAX Gallery 2,Tokyo, Japan | Allegory Transformed, Imura Art Gallery, Kyoto, Japan | 2008 Collapsing Perspective, Gallery ON, Seoul, Korea | Oikos, Galerie 16, Kyoto, Japan | 2005 Takashi Hinoda, Gallery Pahk, New York | Mollusc Republic, Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan | Takashi Hinoda, Dai Ichi Gallery, New York, New York | Entartete, Galerie 16, Kyoto, Japan | Collapsing Perspective, Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan | 2004 Townsfolk, Galarie16, Kyoto, Japan | Dazed, Cubic Gallery, Osaka, Japan | 2003 No Assurance, Cubic Gallery, Osaka, Japan | 2002 Me, Gallerie 16, Kyoto, Japan | 2001 Cruel Poet, Gallery Sanjo, Kyoto, Japan | Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan | 2000 What a World / Works 1996-2000, ABC Gallery, Osaka, Japan | INAX Tile Museum, Tokoname, Japan | Penny Icon, Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan | 1999 Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan | 1998 Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan | 1997 Firing clay and granite, INAX Gallery 2, Tokyo, Japan | Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan | Recent Works, Rose Garden, Kobe, Japan | 1996 Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, Japan | 1995 Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, Japan | INAX Galleria Ceramica, Tokyo, Japan | 1994 Nankinmachi Gallery Cyouya, Kobe, Japan | 1993 Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, Japan | 1992 Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan Selected Group Exhibitions: 2010 Art Fair Tokyo 2010, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan | SONAGI, Hare, KiMi Art, Seoul, Korea | Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Encouraging Prize | 2009 Breaking the Mold: Contemporary Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Sculpture, Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, Michigan | Art Fair Tokyo 2009, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan | Fragiles – Porcelain, Glass & Ceramics, Al-Sabah Art & Design, Kuwait | Treasure for the Future, Takashimaya Department Store, Tokyo, Japan | 2008 Fragiles – Porcelain, Glass & Ceramics, Gallery 113, Kortrijk, Belgium | Utpia, Atelier XiaoDong, Beijing, China | Masters of Disguise, Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, North Carolina | Relación Cerámica, Onomachi Department Store, Wakayama City, Japan | Asia Top Gallery Hotel Art Fair 2008, Hotel New Otani, Tokyo, Japan | Art+Design Fair 2008, Park Avenue Armory, New York, New York | True Grit – Frames, Fixations & Flirtations, McColl Center for Visual Arts, Charlotte, North Carolina | 2007 SOFA NY 2007, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York | The Hands on Movement -Crafted Form in Dialogue, Liljevalchs Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden | Asian Contemporary Art Fair New
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
York 2007, Pier 92, New York, New York | Fragiles – Porcelain, Glass & Ceramics, Design Miami 2007, Miami, Florida, Curated by Die Gestalten Verlag | Human Form in Clay – the Minds Eye, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Koka City, Shiga – Prefecture, Japan | 2006 SOFA NY 2006, Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, New York | Takashi+2:East Meets East Takashi Murakami and Takashi Hinoda, Casa Nova Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico | SOFA Chicago 2006, Festival Hall, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois | 2005 Ceramics in New Sense – 50 Objects, Chubu International Airport Gallery, Tokoname, Japan | Galeria Ceramica 110 Works, INAX Tile Museum, Tokoname, Japan | Walking Clay – Figurative Sculpture, Dai Ichi Gallery, New York | 2004 Selected Artists in Kyoto 2004 – New Waves, The Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan | Ceramic Site 2004, Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan | Figure, Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan | 2003 Contemporary Master Ceramists of Western Japan, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Kasama-City, Japan | Mutsuo Yanagihara and 14 Contemporary Ceramists, The Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan | The Art of Earth – Clay Works of the New Century, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan | 2001 Ceramics / the Wall, Gallery Haku, Osaka, Japan | 2000 Exhibition 2000: Traveling to Art, Gallery KURANUKI, Osaka, Japan Selected Public Collections: Musée de la Ville de Vallauris, France | Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park Artist in Residence Program, Shiga, Japan | INAX Tile Musuem, Tokoname, Japan | The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan | Arizona State University Art Museum, Arizona | Mint Museum of Craft + Design, North Carolina
Rina Hongo Born 1983 | Kumamoto, Japan Education: 2007 BFA, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto, Japan Professional Experience: 2011 Residency, Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center, Tajimi, Japan Solo Exhibitions: 2007 Ceramic Reflections, INAX Galleria Ceramica, Tokyo, Japan Group Exhibitions: 2009 The 8 th International Ceramics Competition Mino, Japan, Ceramics Park, Mino, Japan | 2006 Futari no Shiru Tokoro, Terall Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Awards: 2009 Honorable Mention, The 8th International Ceramics Competition Mino, Japan, Ceramics Park, Mino, Japan
Naoto Nakada
Born 1973 | Aichi, Japan Education: 2000 MFA, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan | 1998 BFA, design, Nagoya University of Arts, Nagoya, Japan Professional Experience: 2001-05 Assistant Professor, ceramics, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan Solo Exhibitions: 2009 Twins, San-ai Gallery contemporary, Tokyo, Japan | 2006 perfectly natural (too real), Gallery Okabe, Tokyo, Japan | 2005
Maho Tsukai (a magician), Galerie Tokyo Humanité lab, Tokyo, Japan | 2003 nothing out of the ordinary, Mejiro Open Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | 2001 Futaba Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | 2000 overflowing, Futaba Gallery, Tokyo, Japan Group Exhibitions: 2010 Dandans at No Mans Land, French Embassy, Tokyo, Japan | 2009 Midsummer Dream, Chinzanso, Tokyo, Japan | New Town Picnic: Adventure of Ruin and Art, Yokohama History Museum, Tsuzuki Minkaen, Yokohama, Japan | 2008 0×100, Galeria de Muerte, Tokyo, Japan | The House, Nippon Homes Showroom, Tokyo, Japan | Convivium with Stone, Stone Plaza, Stone Museum, Tochigi, Japan | Nakamura Kimpei’s Clay/ Ceramic Theater 4 HOPE Children in Funabashi, Funabashi Andersen Park Children Museum, Chiba, Japan | The Yard Art: Conception Replay, Roof Gallery, Tamagawa Takashimaya S.C, Tokyo, Japan | Small Works Exhibition 2008, Galerie Tokyo Humanité Lab, Tokyo, Japan | New Town Paradise: Between Ruin and Mansion, Yokohama Tsuzuki Minkaen, Kanagawa, Japan | Form of The Handle, Tajimi Prefectural Culture Studio, Gallery Voice, Gifu, Japan | Confession Etiquette: From Person, To Person, Tama Art University Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | 2007 Toyota Triennale’07, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan | Some Form of The Lid, Tajimi Prefectural Culture Studio, Gallery Voice, Gifu, Japan | Le Monde De Coco, Chanel Nexus Hall, Tokyo, Japan | Minkaen De Art Chashitsu, Yokohama Tsuzuki Minkaen, Kanagawa, Japan | 2006 What is white and black?, Gallery Concept 21,Tokyo, Japan | In Memory Of Jumpei Sugie Exhibition, Nagoya Art University Tokoname Studio Gallery, Aichi, Japan | Clay Connection By Freeter, Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan | Cool & Sophisticated: Contemporary Master Ceramists Of Eastern Japan, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Ibaraki, Japan | 2004 Toyota Triennale’04, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan | A Three-Dimensional Illustrated Book of Animals, Tama Zoo, Tokyo, Japan | Musical Box Art 2004, Hall of Halls Rokko, Kobe, Japan | You Pack Art Competition 2004, Art Space SAGA, Kyoto, Japan | Mogbox Pandora, Mejiro Open Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | MalaysiaJapan Arts Exchange 2005, University of Technology, Mara, Malaysia | Multiple, San-Ai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan | 2003 Contact Act 2 Japan and Korea Young Ceramic Artist Exchange Exhibition, The Museum Of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan | Chiba Art Flash ’03, Chiba Citizen Gallery Inage, Chiba, Japan | Sendai Art Annual 2003, Sendai Mediatheque, Sendai, Japan | Shinsei-Future Creative Ceramic, Contemporary Art Space, Osaka, Japan | 2002 Art Universiade: Nanohana-SatomiHakken-Ten, Asumigaoka, Chiba, Japan | Contact: Japan and Korea Young Ceramic Artist Exchange Exhibition, The Museum Of Modern Art, Shiga, Japan | 1999 Kaminoge Exhibition, Tama Art University Kaminoge, Tokyo, Japan | Kanagawa Art Exhibition, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, Yokohama, Japan | Site Aoyama, Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan | 1998 The 4th Art Festival in Ichinomiya, Dr. Hino’s Office, Ichinomiya, Japan | International Ceramics Competition Mino, Japan, Tajimi General Gymnasium, Gifu, Japan | Asahi Ceramic Art
Exhibition, Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo | Nagoya University of Arts Graduation Work Exhibition, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan | 1997 Nagoya Citizen Gallery, Nagoya | 1996 Nagoya Citizen Gallery, Nagoya Collections: University Of Technology, Mara, Malaysia
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Prize Grand prize Public Collections: Philadelphia Art Museum, Pennsylvania | Contemporary Craft Museum, Portland, Oregon | Gifu Modern Ceramic Art Museum, Gifu, Japan | The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park Museum, Shiga, Japan | Tokoname City, Aichi, Japan | Izushi Mati, Hyogo, Japan | Kutaniyaki Ceramic Art Scholl, Isikawa, Japan | INAX, Aichi, Japan | MICOM Museum, Obera, Argentina
Kyoko Tokumaru
Born 1963 | Tokyo, Japan Education: 1992 MFA, ceramics, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan Solo Exhibitions: 2009 Shibuya Seibu Alternative Space, Tokyo, Japan | 2008 Nihonbashi Mitukoshi, Tokyo, Japan | Meguro Ceramic Gallery, Yokkaichi, Japan | 2006 Gallery Motomachi , Yokohama, Japan | 2005 Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, Nebraska | Meguro Ceramic Gallery, Yokkaichi, Japan | 2002 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, New York | Contemporary Craft Museum, Portland, Oregon | 2000 INAX International Tile Museum, Tokoname, Japan | Meguro Ceramic Gallery, Yokkaichi, Japan | 1999 Galeria Ceramica, Shinjyuku, Japan | 1996 Art Space Yu, Sagamihara, Japan | 1995 Gallery M, Aoyama, Japan | 1994 Gallery Koyanagi, Ginza, Japan Group Exhibitions: 2009 Arty Crafty, Fukagawa Labo, Tokyo, Japan | 2008 The House: How to live with the contemporary arts, Nihon Homes Model House, Tokyo, Japan | Decoration・DECO, The National Museum of Modern Arts, Tokyo, Japan | 2007 The World of Coco by Modern Artists, Chanel Nexus Hall, Tokyo, Japan | Soaring Voices: Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists, Tougei-No-Mori Ceramic Museum, Shiga, Japan, New Otani Museum, Tokyo, Japan | 2006 Clay Connection by Freeter, Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan | Art at Minkaen, Tuzuki Minkaen, Kanagawa, Japan | 2005 50 Ceramic Artists of New Sensations, Central Japan International Airport Centrair, Aichi, Japan | 2004 Clay Studio Guest Artists Exhibition, Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | 2001 Archie Bray Foundation Residents Exhibition, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana | 1996 Modern Ceramics Exchanging Image, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Aichi, Japan | 1992 Modern Oribe, Sougetsu Museum, Tokyo, Japan | 1991 International Modern Ceramic Exhibition, The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park Museum, Shiga Prefecture, Japan Competitions and Awards: 2007 Guest artist at Tougei-No-Mori, Shiga, Japan | 2006 Internacionales Ceramica Contemporanea, Buenos Aires, Obera, Argentina | The Pollock – Krasner Foundation Grantee | 2005 Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas Guest artist | Bemis Center for Contemporary Art Resident Artist, Omaha, Nebraska | 2004 Arizona State University Guest artist with Fellowship of Agency for Cultural Affairs Japan | 2003 Clay Studio, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Guest artist | 2002 Contemporary Craft Museum, Portland, Oregon Resident artist | 2001 Archie Bray Foundation Resident artist | 2000 Izushi Porcelain Competition Bronze prize Art Program | 1996 East West Ceramic Collaboration, Hawaii University | 1992 Mino International Ceramic Art Festival | 1990 19th Choza
Jumpei Ueda Born 1978 | Osaka, Japan Education: 2005 MFA, ceramics, Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan | 2003 BFA, ceramics, Osaka University of Arts, Osaka, Japan Professional Experience: 2010 Residency in Mexico granted by The Gotoh Memorial Foundation | 2008 – 10 Lecturer at Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan Selected Solo Exhibitions: 2010 Urashima Peter Pan Returns / Kangen, Imura Art Gallery, Kyoto, Japan | 2009 Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, Tokyo, Japan | 2008 Pachimon, Imura Art Gallery, Kyoto, Japan | 2006 Chanpon, Gallery 16, Kyoto, Japan | 2004 Luxury Skin, Gallery 16, Kyoto, Japan Selected Group Exhibitions: 2010 Kyou Sei, Kyoto City University of Arts Gallery, Kyoto, Japan | Basara, Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan | 2009 The Power of Decoration: A Viewpoint on Contemporary Kogei, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan | 2008 The 11th Exhibition of the Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art, Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, Japan | Deco: Crafts Gallery for Kids from the Museum Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan | 2006 Selected Artists in Kyoto, The Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan | Clay to Ceramic, Voice gallery, Kyoto, Japan | Take Notice of Grips, Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu, Japan | 2005 Selected Artists in Kyoto, The Museum of Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan | Contemporary Ceramic Art of Japan and Korea, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Aichi Museum Laboratory, Contemporary Art Space, Osaka, Japan | 2004 Ceramic for Use: A New Perspective, Commons Gallery, Hawaii | Asia pacific Ceramic student Workshop, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii | 2003 ART UNIV. 2003, Campus Plaza Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan Awards: 2010 New Comer’s Prize of Art, The Gotoh Memorial Foundation, Mexico | 2008 OKAMOTO TOSHIKO Prize, awarded the 11th Taro Okamoto Award for Contemporary Art, Japan | 2006 The Grand Prix awarded, Selected Artists, Kyoto, Japan | 2004 Mayor’s Award for Graduate School, Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
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Exhibition Checklist (unless otherwise noted, all works courtesy of the artists)
Takashi Hinoda cover and page 11 (left) When the World is Far Away 2005 earthenware, porcelain, air-brushed colored slip and glaze 69” x 21” x 19” Courtesy Dai Ichi Arts, New York page 4 E7(#9) 2009 -10 earthenware, porcelain, air-brushed colored slip and glaze 15” x 13” x 11” page 11 (center) Girl from the North Country 2006 earthenware, porcelain, air-brushed colored slip and glaze right: 50” x 15” x 20” left: 26” x 27” x 16” Courtesy Dai Ichi Arts, New York page 11 (right) Creole Jam 2006 earthenware, porcelain, air-brushed colored slip and glaze four figures, approx. 16”h Courtesy Dai Ichi Arts, New York page 12 It's Uneasy Even Being in the World 2005 earthenware, porcelain, air-brushed colored slip and glaze 23” x 18” x 13” Courtesy Dai Ichi Arts, New York
Jumpei Ueda page 14 (left to right) Abocado Abocado 2011 glazed highfire ceramic 12” x 10” x 8”
Quiero Quiero 2011 glazed highfire ceramic 24” x 23” x 25”
Swing 2 2011 manganese clay with colored slip, wood, metal chain 32” x 12” x 34” (excluding swing)
Shirushi (detail right) 2009 unglazed porcelain 20” x 24” x 24”
Custom Ornament Pot, Mexican Specifications, Uno 2011 glazed highfire ceramic, aluminum leaf 6” x 9” x 5”
Swing 1 2011 manganese clay with colored slip, wood, metal chain 32” x 12” x 34” (excluding swing)
Shirushi_09_04 2009 unglazed porcelain 24” x 16” x 16”
Custom Ornament Pot, Mexican Specifications, Dos 2011 glazed highfire ceramic, coated with bronze powder 7” x 9” x 5”
(background, left) Untitled 2011 manganese clay with colored slip 10” x 10” x 6”
page 19 Shirushi 2009 unglazed porcelain 20” x 24” x 24”
(background, center) The Azure Water 2010 manganese clay with colored slip 12” x 12” x 13.75”
Kyoko Tokumaru
Custom Ornament Pot, Mexican Specifications, Tres 2011 glazed highfire ceramic, coated with bronze powder 6” x 9” x 5” page 15 Quiero Quiero 2011 glazed highfire ceramic 24” x 23” x 25” Ajo Ajo (not pictured) 2011 glazed highfire ceramic 6” x 3” x 6”
Chiho Aono page 16 Swing 2 2011 manganese clay with colored slip, wood, metal chain 32” x 12” x 34” (excluding swing) page 17 (foreground, left to right) Swim Like a Whale 2009 manganese clay with colored slip 10” x 16” x 12”
(background, top center) A Soft Border 2008 manganese clay with colored slip 23” x 16” x 8”
Makiko Hattori page 18 (left to right) Aru 2008 unglazed porcelain 24” x 16” x 16” Shirushi_09_02 2009 unglazed porcelain 26” x 20” x 20”
Shirushi
page 20 Hana Hiromogi (Flower Offering) 2008 glazed and unglazed porcelain 23” x 14” x 12” page 21 (left to right) Cosmic Plants 2008 unglazed porcelain 31” x 12” x 12” Houou 2 (Phoenix) 2008 unglazed porcelain 20” x 17” x 5” Houou 1 (Phoenix) 2008 unglazed porcelain 20” x 17” x 6”
Hana Hiromogi (Flower Offering)
Hana Hiromogi (Flower Offering) (detail right) 2008 glazed and unglazed porcelain 23” x 14” x 12”
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Rina Hongo page 22 (foreground) Playing 2011 porcelain with silkscreen transfers variable dimensions from 5” x 20” x 16” to 5.5” x 27” x 21” page 22 (background, left to right) ZOU – Yoku Mireba Sou Mieru Deshou 2009 porcelain with silkscreen transfers 15.75” x 17.75” x 17.75” The Narrow Gate 2011 porcelain with silkscreen transfers 20” x 16” x 21.5” D 2011 porcelain with silkscreen transfers 5.5” x 18” x 3” page 23 The Narrow Gate 2011 porcelain with silkscreen transfers 20” x 16” x 21.5”
Naoto Nakada page 24 (background, left to right) A Couple of U.S.A. Glasses 2011 stoneware with low temperature glazes 4.5” x 7” x 5” Minnesota Glasses 2011 stoneware with low temperature glazes 4.5” x 8” x 5.5”
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics: Rejecting Labels and Embracing Clay
Minnesota Glasses 2011 stoneware with low temperature glasses 4.5” x 8” x 5.5” Walkman 2011 stoneware with metal oxides 13” x 64” x 30.5” page 24 (foreground) TWINS-for Maple in Minneapolis 2011 stoneware with glaze 20.5” x 51” x 8” page 25 TWINS – for Maple in Minneapolis (detail) 2011 stoneware with glaze Every Night Comes to an End (not pictured) 2011 stoneware with low temperature glazes, lamp 21” x 12” x 9” iHorn 1 2011 stoneware with low temperature glazes 10” x 19.5” x 4” iHorn 2 2011 stoneware with low temperature glazes 22” x 17.5” x 4.5” iHorn 3 2011 stoneware with low temperature glazes 11” x 10.5” x 3”
Northern Clay Center Northern Clay Center’s mission is the advancement of the ceramic arts. Its goals are to promote excellence in the work of clay artists, to provide educational opportunities for artists and the community, and to encourage and expand the public’s appreciation and understanding of all forms of the ceramic arts.
Board of Directors Ellen Watters, Chair Lynne Alpert Phil Burke Sheldon Chester Linda Coffey Debra Cohen Bonita Hill Sally Wheaton Hushcha Patricia Jacobsen Peter Kirihara Rebecca Lawrence Mark Lellman Bruce Lilly Alan Naylor Mark Pharis Jim Ridenour Teresa Matsui Sanders Rick Scott T Cody Turnquist Bob Walsh
Director Sarah Millfelt Exhibitions Director & Curator Theresa Downing Exhibitions Assistant Matthew Krousey
Honorary Members Andy Boss Kay Erickson Warren MacKenzie Joan Mondale Director Emerita Emily Galusha
Photos Unless otherwise noted, all photographs by Peter Lee.
ISBN 978-1-932706-19-2
REPLACE
WITH ISBN 978-1-932706-22-2
9 781932 706192 >
New Millennium Japanese Ceramics This exhibition was the final event of Northern Clay Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s year-long 20th Anniversary celebration. Guest-curated by D.H. Rosen, it featured objects by younger, emerging Japanese artists who work in clay, outside the traditions of functional Japanese ceramics. Featured artists: Chiho Aono (Linz, Austria) Makiko Hattori (Obu City, Aichi Prefecture) Takashi Hinoda (Kyotanabe City, Kyoto) Rina Hongo (Tajimi-shi, Gifu Prefecture) Naoto Nakada (Machida City, Tokyo) Kyoko Tokumaru (Tokyo) Jumpei Ueda (Toluca, Estado de Mexico, Mexico)
Northern Clay Center 2424 Franklin Avenue East Minneapolis, Minnesota 55406
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