CONCORD, MASS.- Lacoste Gallery announces its exhibition Shozo Michikawa • Solo from June 3-28, 2017 with the internationally renowned Japanese ceramic sculptor. Michikawa is highly regarded as a contemporary master of Japanese ceramics with his work found in major museums and private collections worldwide. Born on the island of Hokkaido in the most northern part of Japan, he worked in business until evening classes gave him a passion for clay. Dedicating himself to ceramics, he works from his studio in Seto, one of the sites of the six ancient kilns in Japan. His innovative works that start on the potter’s wheel and often twist on an internal axis are sculptural yet retain a core of functional pottery. The artist insists on this “as pottery was so integral to people’s lives in Japan”. Each piece is faceted and glazed to mimic the effects of nature.

Michikawa’s work has been compared to haiku, the ancient and revered form of Japanese poetry based on metered lines. Where the succinct poetry counts the sound units, the artist uses clay and glaze to infuse his work with poetry and spirituality.

Michikawa’s works are in the permanent collection of the China Japan Exchange Center; LACMA Los Angeles CA; The Modern Glass and Ceramic Museum, Coburg Germany; Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Qinglingsi Temple, Xi’an China; Shimada City Museum, Japan; University of Wales Aberystwyth, Wales and the National Museum of Wales. His work has been shown regularly at art fairs first by Galerie Besson and then Erskine Hall and Coe both of London, England.

“I have kept my eye on showing Shozo Michikawa since meeting him through mutual participation in art fairs. His is a unique talent based on his personal expression of pottery as an art form. His voice is contemporary and poetic.” Lucy Lacoste