Exhibition: Keiko Masumoto Avant-garde Ceramic Art ICN Gallery London

12th – 19th October 2011 at ICN gallery 96-98 Leonard Street London EC2A 4RH

Birds and frogs, flowers and trees, these are originally just seen as decorative elements of vessels and plates. For a special one-week only pop-up exhibit, ICN gallery introduces Masumoto’s  ceramic works which live in the ambiguous realm between craft and fine art.

“The categories “fine art” and “craft” have long been present in Japan, but today for most people the boundaries between them are vague. The vessel form may be one type of device used in the studio crafts, like the painting and the frame in the fine arts. Whether art or craft, I want to offer work that is intensely consciousness of that category, that framework, to explore what I myself felt. What spurred me to create this series of works was the idea that they might generate some insight, if I featured them in an intriguing way; works that are situated on that ambiguous boundary.” (Keiko Masumoto)

Masumoto is a graduate from ceramic master’s course in Kyoto City University of Arts. Between 2007 – 2010  he was a teacher at the ceramic studio in Fumonsha, Kyoto. His work has appeared in numerous exhibitions in Tokyo and Kyoto, and from 2010 Masumoto became an artist in a residence program at University of ARTS (Philadelphia,USA).

Awards

2008  Runner-up Prize in Tokyo Midtown Award Art Competition
2009 Grand prix in Tokyo Wonder Wall(sponsored by Tokyo metropolitan government) Curator’s choice award in Kyoten(sponsored by Kyoto City)

Solo Exhibitions

2010 PANORAMA view of ceramic / INAX GALERIA CERAMICA (Tokyo)
INAX Live Museum (Tokoname Aichi)
TKG Projects #1 / TKG Editions Kyoto
Gallery Jin (Tokyo)
2011 Yakimono hence (changes in ceramics) / Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Hyogo)

Group Exhibition

2010 the Power of Decoration / Craft Gallery, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Tosei gallery in Tokyo Metropolitan Government office building

Melange / Imura Art Gallery (Kyoto)

2011  Shin, Tou, Sengen (New, Ceramic, Statement) / Toyota Municipal Museum of Art (Aichi)

 

For more information, visit the ICN gallery website.

(Photo courtesy of the ICN gallery)

Related Posts:

Exhibition: Asian Creative Culture – The Red Gallery London

“OHAKO” – ICN Gallery Grand Opening Exhibition London