Spotted | TASTE-y Ceramics, Polka Dotted Porcelain Pumpkins and Gun Wielding Figurines

Welcome back to Spotted, our weekly round-up of our favorite ceramic finds from the worlds of contemporary ceramics and contemporary ceramic art. Before we venture to Côte d’Azur to share ceramic works exhibited from Artmonte-carlo, we jump off with Yayoi Kasuma’s iconic polka dotted ceramic pumpkins.

Yayoi Kasuma

Critically acclaimed Japanese artist Yayoi Kasuma has said her deeply and innately personal polka dots (motifs which stem from hallucinations during childhood) can represent the sun, moon and the earth—the cosmos. Even so, what they signify is less important than they aim to achieve.

From Assistant Curator of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Mika Yoshitake:

There is something about these universal motifs that clearly resonate with a lot of people. It’s important to not only see the surfaces in her work, but to understand their effects.

Kasuma explains the polka dots serve to obliterate ego and return people to the nature of the universe.

You can bid June 7, 2017 on this set of five pumpkins here.

Kasuma’s pumpkins are also featured in a year-long exhibition (February 23, 2017 – February 17, 2018) in six museums across the United States. The pumpkin motifs are arranged in one of Kasuma’s Mirrored Infinity Rooms All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins.

Jeffry Mitchell

Jeffry Mitchell identifies himself as “gay folk artist,” creating works which live in duality juxtaposing disparate ideas into approachable, engaging works drawing in viewers with his curiosity and ungainly recreations.

Using sweet, furry animals and soft, pastel colors, Mitchell transforms kitsch subject matter into a study of complex human experiences, including death, sex, religion, and loss.

Sueharu Fukami

Japanese ceramist Sueharu Fukami’s precisely engineered celadon objects have been described as scabbards of Japanese swords, waves breaking against the shore and leaves in mid-flight. His stunning streamlined forms are created using a refined process of slip-casting very fine porcelain.

Read more from Cfile on Fukami.

Penny Byrne

Penny Byrne’s reworked disfigured kitsch figurines are politically charged, highly engaging and often disarmingly humorous as seen in her Narco Traficantes armed with machine guns and bedazzling bling.

Byrne’s work presents an ongoing inquiry into popular culture and international politics. Her background in ceramics conservation and the law informs her practice.

Read more Cfile musings on Byrne’s work.

James Tyler

From the sculptor who brought us Brickhead, we share a new work from James Tyler’s figures series.

From Sculpture Review Magazine:

His figures revel in a motion and rhythm that is perhaps more reminiscent of the sculptural heritages of the east. Stamped with an unmistakable deific quality, Tyler’s figures are also very human, voluptuously rounded thighs and torsos complement their ethereal nature with a marked physicality. It is through pose and gesture, rather than detailed realism that Tyler seeks to capture and convey the human experience.

TASTE

TASTE featured work of artists from all disciplines who push the boundaries including those who are established and whose work is included in many international museum and private collections, as well as emerging artists.

TASTE took part in the 2017 Artmonte-carlo (April 28 – April 30, 2017), a new art exhibition aiming to establish an artistic platform on the Côte d’Azur.

Martine Bedin, curator of ‘Objects, my friends,’ invited 15 world renowned design galleries to present their most prominent artists, including four ceramists artists from TASTE: Aneta Regel, Frances Lambe, Grant Aston and Andrea Walsh.

TASTE artists Alison Britton, Philip Eglin, Babs Haenen, Anne Marie Laureys, Johannes Nagel and Marit Tingleff also presented their works at Artmonte-carlo.

Do you love or loathe these works from the worlds of contemporary ceramic art and contemporary ceramics? Let us know in the comments.