With less than two weeks to the opening of the highly-anticipated exhibition The Eight Winds at JOAN B. MIRVISS LTD, a number of works have already sold to prominent collectors across the country. There has been tremendous interest from museums and private collectors, and it is expected to be a very successful show with strong attendance. Opening on September 18, this autumn’s Asia Week New York exhibition features the many imprints of Chinese ceramics on Japanese clay art. Ranging from the delicate beauty of pale celadon to striking deep-brown iron glazes, The Eight Winds represents the flow from China to Japan of ceramic traditions that occur in both vessel construction and applied glazes. The Eight Winds highlights contemporary Japanese artists whose works breathe new spirit into eight age-old processes: blue-and-white, celadon, iron, polychrome, oil-spot and white glazing, as well as marbled clay and slip inlay. All have proven to be vital sources of inspiration that have been integrated within the Japanese ceramic vocabulary and are evident in the more than fifty selected contemporary works included in the exhibition.

Two of the artists featured in the exhibition are TAKEGOSHI Jun and KAWASE Shinobu, both contemporary celebrated porcelain masters. TAKEGOSHI Jun (b. 1948) offers a strikingly graphic take on Ming dynasty (1368-1644) under- and over-glaze enamel porcelains. A
stark white background provides the base for bold images executed in his unique polychrome, jewel-like palette, derived from the local kutani tradition that was in turn influenced by Chinese glazes. Reflecting his early training as a painter, Takegoshi’s ability with the brush is also readily apparent in his colorful and animated depictions of birds. KAWASE Shinobu’s (b. 1950) delicate and exquisitely thrown works stand apart from their Chinese predecessors. Kawase is also known for his impeccable application of a range of blue-green celadon glazes on his refined vision of Song dynasty-inspired vessels. His mastery of this revered, ancient art form is evidenced by the presence of his works in museums throughout the world.

Chinese inventions have provided a wellspring of inspiration for many other Japanese ceramists who have re-interpreted these centuries-old techniques in their own unique ways, including FUKUMOTO Fuku, KONDO Takahiro and Yutaka, OGATA Kamio, ONO Hakuko, YAGI Akira, and MATSUI Kōsei and NAKAJIMA Hiroshi, both Living National Treasures, who all will be featured in this exhibition. Maintaining a constant eye on the past but always looking forward, these artists produce ceramics of powerful vitality.

The Eight Winds is on view from September 18 to October 31, 2013.

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