The Irresistible Allure of Japanese Ceramics: In Conversation with Joan Mirviss and Takahiro KONDO

Online ticket sales are now closed. Limited tickets will be available for sale at the door starting at 6:30 pm. 
$18 General / $15 Gardiner Friends

Part of Takahiro KONDO’S Artist in Residence Programming

6:30 pm: Doors open
6:45 pm: In Conversation

In the twenty some years that Joan Mirviss and Takahiro KONDO have known and worked with each other, they have had a running dialogue about Japanese ceramics and its uniqueness and importance, and have collaborated on projects focused on bringing new ways of understanding and appreciating Japanese ceramics to a wider world.

Their talk will cover a broad spectrum of topics, ranging from ancient historic influences, to Indigenous traditions based on the Japanese unique ideal of beauty and related functional uses in flower arranging, food presentation and the tea ceremony. However, following the Second World War, Japanese ceramics moved beyond the purely functional and Kyoto’s importance in this development has been paramount.

The state of Japanese ceramics today, how it is perceived and collected at both the institutional and individual level, and what the future development might be will also be discussed as it relates to the Kondo family in particular. Most recently, the conceptual work of Kondo reflects and reacts to the concerns of society today, not least the disaster of 3/11 and its aftermath.

Kondo Takahiro, who often combines porcelain with other materials, such as glass or metal, also represents the third generation of a Kyoto family made famous through work with traditional blue-and-white glazed porcelain, or sometsuke.  Joan Mirviss, the curator of the current exhibition, is a world-renowned expert on Japanese modern and contemporary ceramics and owns a gallery in New York City. They are delighted to have this opportunity to share their insights and thoughts and to invite the Gardiner audience into the conversation.

About Takahiro KONDO

Takahiro KONDO is immensely talented teacher and artist in all senses and has a profound knowledge about the world of clay in Japan in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Born in Kyoto into a family celebrated for its traditional sometsuke (cobalt blue and-white porcelain), Takahiro KONDO has striven to determine his own independent artistic identity through extensive experimentation. He quickly developed his own style by incorporating other materials including metal and cast glass into his work. His experimentation resulted in his unique and ”silver mist” (gintekisai) glaze. Takahiro KONDO’s work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions worldwide including Japan, Australia, China, Brazil, and throughout the United States. His work is part of many public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, UK; and The Paper Museum, Tokyo.

Sponsored by

Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO)

Image: Box, 2005, porcelain with white underglaze and silver mist overglaze and cast glass, 7 x 17 1/4 x 3 1/3 inches, photography by Richard Goodbody