MEXICO CITY––Japanese ceramist Takuro Kuwata’s characteristically juicy, colorful and lustred vessels comprise the artist’s latest exhibition Are you going out, Teabowl at Galeria Mascota in Mexico City (November 23, 2018 – January 22, 2019).
Unlike the artist’s colossal sculptures, like in his 2016 “From Tea Bowl” exhibition, this show comprised of works on a more human scale. This smaller scale, though, not only yielded a familiar intimacy for the viewer, but also seemed to exaggerate their richly hued––almost radioactive––surfaces, and even more so each work’s dense geological landscape with their deep crevasses, tectonic disruptions and volcanic eruptions.
“A row of Kuwata’s ceramics can give the queasy impression of a bunch of radioactive fruits.”
Phaidon, Vitamin C Clay + Ceramics
And while not particularly unchartered territory for the artist, the exhibition is a demonstration of Kuwata’s dedicated practice to his pursuit of something “new” through his surface experimentations and kiln-god metamorphoses, which as Artsy points out, “push the potential of his materials.”
“I’m not trying to break the rules… I just want to apply a contemporary sensibility to pottery. I believe I can create something truly new, work that reflects our time.”
Takuro Kuwata, 2013
Kuwata’s works with their contemporary vibes are rooted in the historical traditions of Japan, going os far as to use local clays, rocks from the mountains near his home, leaves vats of glaze out in the midday heat to grow mold as ceramist and writer Eva Masterman wrote for Cfile.Daily in 2016.
“The work doesn’t hide its traditional roots, it screams them in gold, platinum, fluorescent green and bright blue. They are at once held together and ripped apart by this attachment to craft techniques of the past: ishi-haze, a technique of putting small stones into a glaze to produce a volcanic surface, is translated into hunks of molten rock piercing the sculptures; kairagi, a method of intentional glaze shrinkage, is pushed so far that the crawling or peeling surfaces barley cling to the supporting structure; huge gold and silver cracks facet the pieces, kintsugi on an epic scale.”
Eva Masterman, 2016
About the Gallery: Galeria Mascota is a new project space providing a platform with a focus on the work of emerging foreign artists. The space constitutes an important window into foreign work that is locally relevant and will help inform the practice and development of Mexico City’s artistic landscape. Mascota is seeking to enhance a fertile environment by complimenting it with perspectives and information that may not have been previously evident.
Love or loathe this exhibition from the world of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics? Sound off in the comments section below.
Add your valued opinion to this post.