LONG BEACH, CA.-Crossing Boundaries: The Ceramic Sculpture of Mineo Mizuno is the first major museum exhibition to survey the work of this extraordinary Japanese-born, Los Angeles-based artist. Organized by the Long Beach Museum of Art, the exhibition features more than 40 examples of Mizuno’s ceramic sculpture spanning an over thirty-year period from 1973 to 2005. Crossing Boundaries will be presented in Long Beach through January 15, 2006.

Throughout his career, Mineo Mizuno has created superbly crafted works which, while firmly grounded in the traditions of the ceramic arts, transcend boundaries. In crossing these traditional barriers, he has created new forms in clay that exist on equal footing with painting, sculpture and architecture – forms which confound traditional categories and hierarchies, bringing together elements from each discipline into one, integrated whole.

Born in Gifu Prefecture, Japan in 1944, Mineo Mizuno first visited the United States in 1964. He studied ceramics at the Chouinard Art Institute from 1966 to 1968 under Ralph Bacerra, a seminal figure in the history of California ceramics. Crossing Boundaries surveys all aspects of Mizuno’s multifaceted career through a selection of over forty works representing each period in the artist’s development. Four works in the collection of the Long Beach Museum of Art will be supplemented by loans from public and private collections throughout Southern California and one loan from Japan. On loan from Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art is a monumental installation comprised of five vividly-colored monoliths, each over six feet tall, entitled California Landscape.

Mineo Mizuno is recognized internationally as a leader in the contemporary ceramics field. His work is in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps College, Claremont, California.

Curated by Long Beach Museum of Art Director Harold B. Nelson, Crossing Boundaries is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue featuring an introduction by Mr. Nelson and an interview with Mizuno by Deborah McLeod.

Crossing Boundaries concludes a year-long series of exhibitions and cultural programs entitled “California Visions.” Organized by the Long Beach Museum of Art, “California Visions” highlights the remarkable achievements of artists who were raised in the Golden State or who immigrated to California attracted by its beauty, its embrace of innovation or its promise of hope and opportunity.

Crossing Boundaries is made possible with the support of Steve and Kelly Sutherlin McLeod, the Kenneth T. & Eileen L. Norris Foundation, Pacific Crane Maintenance Company, Inc., the Boardman Family Foundation, the Pasadena Art Alliance, the LLWW Foundation, the Port of Long Beach, an anonymous donor and many other generous sponsors.