YASUHISA KOHYAMA

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Yasuhisa Kohyama’s masterly ceramics are inspired by the ancient Shigaraki, Jōmon and Yayoi ceramics of Japan. Using the distinctive Shigaraki clay and a wood-firing anagama kiln, he has created modern ceramic vessels and sculpture, which are vigorous and new, but timeless in their beauty.

Kohyama shapes his asymmetrical forms using a piano string, thereby creating distinctive, rough surfaces. The clay with its nuggets of feldspar creates a tactile quality not often seen in contemporary work. No glazes are used, but the wood ash and the placement in the kiln produce an extraordinary array of colours and shading on the surface.

Kohyama’s works are owned by leading museums worldwide, including the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; the Musée National de Ceramique, Sèvres; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A new publication featuring important texts positions Kohyama’s œuvre in the contemporary and historical context of Japanese ceramics and dazzles with superlative photographs of his ceramic sculpture.

Exhibition at Erskine, Hall & Coe, London, 13.6. - 12.7.2012.
Further information: www.erskinehallcoe.com

PRESS COMMENTS

"Zeitgenössische japanische Keramikkunst befindet sich stets auf einer Gratwanderung zwischen altüberlieferter Tradition und lebendiger Gegenwart. Der Weg des Feuers, das heisst des traditionellen Holzfeuerbrands, ist trotz den Strapazen und Unwägbarkeiten, die er für einen Töpfer, eine Keramikerin bedeutet, einer, den viele einschlagen. (...)", Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 9.10.2012.