Listening to Clay
An exhibition of available works selected by the artists
featured in this newly released publication
July 20 – August 26, 2022
All sixteen artists showcased in Listening to Clay: Conversations with Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Artists (Monacelli Press/release date: June 14, 2022) are participating in our next exhibition in honor of this book's publication. Works that best embody the inspirations, challenges, and achievements of their distinguished careers have been selected for this special exhibition. Most of the artists have been long represented by Joan B Mirviss LTD, who has witnessed their impressive artistic development over the decades. Accompanied by the rich personal stories found within the book, the clay works on offer in the exhibition Listening to Clay represent these artists' innovative brilliance and encapsulate the diversity of ceramics in Japan today.
Across many journeys to Japan, and multiple intimate conversations with each master artist, Alice and Halsey North, pioneering collectors and museum patrons, together with Louise Allison Cort, Curator Emerita of Ceramics, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC), have compiled these discussions and added their valuable insights into a beautifully illustrated collector's volume, only now available. It uniquely brings together the very personal stories of these artists whose work range across a variety of traditions, styles, and techniques that characterize Japan's exciting modern clay landscape. Conversations with artists who were born into legacy pottery-making families steeped in tradition are presented alongside those with the first women to study clay in newly-established university degree programs. The selling gallery exhibition Listening to Clay likewise showcases this trailblazing array of talent and ingenuity.
The gallery exhibition runs from July 20 to August 26, 2022. It features available works by all sixteen artists in the book, Listening to Clay (listed in chronological order):
Hayashi Yasuo (b. 1928),
Mishima Kimiyo (b. 1932),
Morino Hiroaki Taimei (b. 1934),
Kohyama Yasuhisa (b. 1936),
Miyashita Zenji (1939-2012),
Miwa Ryūkishō (Kyūsetsu XII/ Ryōsaku) (b. 1940),
Koike Shōko (b. 1943),
Ogawa Machiko (b. 1946),
Fukami Sueharu (b. 1947),
Kakurezaki Ryūichi (b. 1950),
Miwa Kyūsetsu XIII (Kazuhiko) (b. 1951),
Akiyama Yō (b. 1953),
Kaneta Masanao (b. 1953),
Yagi Akira (b. 1955),
Kitamura Junko (b. 1956),
and Kondō Takahiro (b. 1958).
The book Listening to Clay: Conversations with Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Artists can be purchased online through its publisher Monacelli Press. Copies will also be available to purchase at Joan B Mirviss LTD during the selling exhibition.
About Joan B Mirviss LTD
With more than forty-five years of experience, Joan B. Mirviss is a pillar in the field of Japanese art. As a dealer, scholar, curator, and advisor, she has been the driving force championing the top Japanese clay artists, who she represents exclusively, and whose works she has placed in major museums around the globe. Widely published as a highly respected expert, Mirviss has built many institutional and private collections of Japanese art. JOAN B MIRVISS LTD exhibits modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics, ukiyo-e, and Japanese paintings from its exclusive Madison Avenue location in New York City.
For more information, please contact us at 212-799-4021 or director@mirviss.com.
"Listening to Clay sheds light on how Japanese clay workers went from skilled production craftspeople to fine artists, transforming the country’s culture in the process."
The latest exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD in honor of the publication by Alice and Halsey North and Louise Allison Cort is featured in Ceramics Now
"Hasta el 26 de agosto se puede visitar en la Galería Joan B. Mirviss LTD, de Nueva York, está exposición que muestra obra seleccionada de algunos de los más destacados ceramistas japoneses de las últimas décadas."
"With few exceptions, until the publication of Listening to Clay: Conversations with Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Artists, English readers have lacked access to interviews of Japanese ceramists," writes professor Meghen Jones.
Artnet News selected our ZOOM Gallery Talk as a highlight of this week's many art events and happenings around town.
Asia Week New York and Joan B Mirviss LTD present Listening to Clay: The Artists, Curators, and Collectors Who Listen
Asia Week New York–in partnership with Joan B Mirviss LTD–will celebrate the publication of Listening to Clay: Conversations with Contemporary Japanese Ceramic Artists, which coincides with the gallery’s exhibition on view from July 19th to August 26th.
"This book contextualizes the techniques, cultural attitudes towards, and markets for ceramics in twentieth-century Japan."
The Japanese-language publication features our upcoming summer exhibition
