DALLAS, TX.- The Crow Museum of Asian Art of The University of Texas at Dallas is presenting the exhibition Hands and Earth: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics, featuring stunning works by the country’s greatest ceramicists, including seven artists deemed “Living National Treasures” by the Japanese government. Free and open the public, the exhibition runs March 9, 2019-Jan. 5, 2020, at the Dallas Arts District museum located at 2010 Flora St., Dallas, Texas 75201.

Marking the first time these world-renowned pieces are to be displayed publicly in North Texas, this exhibition features an in-depth selection of important works by master Japanese ceramic artists of the last 80 years. Visitors will enjoy a rare opportunity to see significant examples of avant-garde approaches to clay in a range of shapes and glazes.

The exhibition draws from the collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz, who have amassed an important, encyclopedic collection of major Japanese modern and contemporary ceramics. Their collection of more than 1,000 works is the largest – public or private – of contemporary Japanese ceramics outside of Japan.

Since 1950, the Japanese government has bestowed the title of “Living National Treasure” upon its practicing artists who have attained the highest level of mastery in their chosen fields of discipline. Of the 35 artists whose works are being shown in this exhibition, seven have been honored with this designation.

“As passionate collectors of Japanese ceramics, Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz have been on a mission to not only assemble these works by world-renowned master artists – including several deemed Japanese ‘Living National Treasures’ – but to also share and educate people regarding the artistry, beauty, cultural significance and intention of their works,” said Amy Lewis Hofland, director of the Crow Museum. “How fortunate that the Crow Museum of Asian Art has a chance to present these works to North Texans for the first time!”

The Horvitz collection features works by some of the most innovative and experimental practitioners of Japanese ceramic tradition, many of whom are considered Japan’s greatest living ceramicists. Additionally, the Boston couple has been instrumental in introducing Japanese ceramics to a much wider audience through their loans, gifts and support of these works outside of Japan.

“The ceramics reflect a duality of character, blending ingenuity with a dynamic relationship and deep respect for tradition,” says Dr. Jacqueline Chao, senior curator of the Crow Museum of Asian Art. “Current Japanese ceramic artists are widely considered among the most aesthetically and technically innovative in the world today.”

“The Horvitz Collection is one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics in the world. We are deeply grateful to Carol and Jeffrey for their efforts in promoting this art form and sharing their wonderful collection with us, and to ORIX Stewardship Foundation for helping us bring these incredible works to Dallas,” added Chao.

Below are a few examples of the groundbreaking ceramic innovation that are being featured in the Hands and Earth: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics exhibition.

KONDŌ Takahiro (b. 1958) followed his father, uncle and grandfather into ceramic art creation. He specializes in distinctive, highly original glazes including his patented "silver mist" (gintekisai), an amalgam of platinum, gold, silver and glass frit that renders effects from a shimmer to a stream of molten drops that cling and pool over the porcelain surfaces. This technique causes the appearance of perpetual condensation on the exterior of the piece.

AKIYAMA Yō (b. 1953) explores the tension between surface and form, the ordered and the organic, inherent in clay’s materiality and essential geologic nature. The deep fissures in his surfaces juxtaposed against the clean, modern lines of the sculptural form create a striking visual tension. This commitment to understanding all the possibilities of clay has made Akiyama one of Japan’s most important contemporary sculptors and has led him to serve as the chairman of the ceramics department at Kyoto City University of Arts. In 2015, he received the prestigious lifetime achievement award from the Japan Ceramic Society, having already been designated artist of the year in 1996.

KOIKE Shōko (b. 1943) is one of the first female graduates of the prestigious ceramics department of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, and she is one of just a few female ceramists who supports herself as a studio-artist. She has become one of the most recognized ceramists in Japan, with works in museum collections throughout the world. Koike draws inspiration from the sea, creating shell-like forms in Shigaraki stoneware with irregular, pinched, and ruffled edges that protrude from hand-built and wheel-thrown bodies. Her forms melt under a creamy white opaque glaze; the edges are further accentuated with dark brown iron glaze and sometimes supplemented with metallic, iridescent, and turquoise glazes.