LOS ANGELES, California — Blum & Poe presented Los Angeles-based artist Shio Kusaka’s second solo exhibition at the gallery (Los Angeles, July 2 – August 20, 2016). For this presentation, the gallery states:
“Kusaka establishes a narrative via a body of work comprised of varied shapes, textures, sizes, techniques, and motifs. Ceramic pots carved to resemble wood grain, porcelain beach balls, pots painted with grids and lines, and miniature porcelain animals, can all be understood as a response to ceramic traditions.
Installed in the three main-floor galleries, on a seemingly continuous pedestal more than one hundred feet in length, Kusaka’s installation calls for each work to be considered within the context of the collective whole. While each pot does function as a stand-alone work, a certain rhythm emerges as individual works gesture to the whims of form and content of surrounding works.
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This exhibition is accompanied by the first of an ongoing series of catalogues documenting a selection of Kusaka’s art, inspired by Japanese pottery reference books. This first volume focuses on pieces from 2014–2016. It is published by Karma, New York and distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc.
Shio Kusaka (b. 1972, Japan) lives and works in Los Angeles. Her work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and has been exhibited throughout the world.”
That’s all well and good. But what about the pots as art? Blum & Poe is one of the country’s most important galleries and that de facto means that Shio is one of the nation’s most significant ceramists and an artist to boot. Or is she? She is part of the elite of L.A. artist world. I have no problem with the premise of a pot as fine art, but it takes a certain kind of vessel to cross over.
Does Shio make that kind of work? First, she does not throw her own pots (I will be corrected if I am wrong), which is of no consequence unless throwing is meant (as in the work of Peter Voulkos) to represent a certain kind of power and personal articulation. In her case it does not.
Click to see a larger image.
Click to see a larger image.
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The genius of this exhibition, alas, is not in the individual pots. (And I am not even going to touch on the odd little parade of animals). It is in the installation, which is awe inspiring. In this context whether each pot is art-worthy or not is rendered. The entity is immensely satisfying; a catalog of the many things pots can be. The long stage on which they appear keeps moving to the end (or the beginning). It’s absorbing, hypnotic and satisfying, unlike her mini-installation in the Whitney Biennial, which was scrappy and pointless.
However, this is not an installation except for display purposes, the pots are sold individually and that is when the work runs into trouble. They all have some charm, some lower key than others, but aside from three large red vessels, none feel significant. Her work is matched and exceeded in each of the genres she attempts by many potters in America. She has no vessel language to call her own; her work is not original, it’s all appropriation but without any conceptual underpinning to make that act meaningful outside the installation.
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Works by Shio Kusaka on exhibition in Los Angeles. Photographs courtesy of Blum & Poe.
I imagine these living alone in a home, one pot on a shelf, and I wonder what it says, this orphan from her larger oeuvre. Few would stand out beyond being a pretty vase. Her three large red pots from the exhibition, which are stunning, would make a powerful statement but still a decorative one, like most potters. What is she at the end of the day, a painter, a potter, or a curator? I got the magic of the assembly but not that of the loners.
To leave on a positive note, the work shown here is an enormous improvement on work from two or three years ago, which bodes well. If she can find a way to engage an epic vision through the pot, which I feel she is struggling to do, there is promise.
Garth Clark is Chief Editor of cfile.daily.
Do you love or loathe these works of contemporary ceramic art? Let us know in the comments.
Shio Kusaka’s ceramics are stunning to look at (online) and artistically deserve their place in a major gallery. Yet I wonder about the fact she does not throw this work herself because the physical effort and act of creating a wonderful pot on the potter’s wheel, the time and passion for this medium to my mind would radiate out in a much more profound way than these pots seem too. Some like the larger red ones and the larger blacker and white sgraffito pots are technically brilliant but do not seem to have any relationship with each other as part of this instillation. I think this instillation could have been placed so much better as some pieces seem to work together but others do not seem to correspond with the others surrounding it. I definitely do not agree with you Joanne about a fancy craft fair or pottery sale as these Ceramics have much more impact than this but maybe have missed something in their interpretation as an installation of this type.
Knowing Shio as I do from my graduate school days (her undergrad days) at University of Washington, I will always give her the benefit of the doubt as to whether she is simply “an LA art scene elite”. She is an artist through to the bone, and one of the most creative and honest people I know, with a unique vision and outlook.
Debbie Reichard
The exhibition looks great (on the internet) and find your critic really interesting and valid. Ceramics can hold its own in the fine art arena but like any good piece of work must shine from within.
This work made me feel as though I was at a fancy craft fair or pottery sale. It doesn’t really move Ceramics forward or have anything interesting to say.
Hey JH,
I am curious about you opinion here.
First, at the least do you not think this ceramic work, which is being shown at a major LA gallery, has any bearing on how ceramics in general is viewed and understood?
Second, did you visit the show in person, or view it only on the internet?
Third, what, in your opinion, is the work saying?
Obviously your opinion is your opinion and therefor as valuable as any other, but I ask these questions because in many ways I believe the adage that any publicity is good publicity. The fact that this work is being shown at a major gallery in LA is a win for the field of ceramics in general. Also, while the computer is a wonderful thing, I am not sure viewing work via the internet is a very good point of departure. Lastly, I believe that objects are only as valuable or meaningful as the energy one is willing to imbue them with. Therefor, I would be interested to hear exactly what this work is saying to you, because I think it is too easy to comment, “It doesn’t really move Ceramics forward or have anything interesting to say”, without giving me some sense of why you think that, because I think the comment, “made me feel as though I was at a fancy craft fair or pottery sale”, does not move ceramics forward or sound very interesting.