Contemporary Japanese Ceramics

Since our first visit to Japan together in 1986, we have enthusiastically visited many contemporary Japanese ceramic artists and actively collected their work.

Our passion for this incredible art form has been the focus of major exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Japan Society in New York (see below), at which time the work by these artists spurred a high level of interest by new collectors, the press, and other institutions in this country and Europe.

We have produced and coordinated four ceramic tours to Japan since 1989 on behalf of the Japan Society in New York City, and we have lectured on contemporary Japanese ceramics at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, New York's Japan Society, New York University, Colorado's Anderson Ranch Art Center, and Oregon's Portland Art Museum.

We first traveled together to Japan in 1986 to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Previously, Alice had attended Miyagi Gakuin high school in Sendai as an American Field Service exchange student and Waseda University in Tokyo as part of a junior year abroad program.

Currently, we are working on a book of ''conversations'' with contemporary Japanese ceramic artists to explore the special circumstances that have produced such an extraordinary body of work over the past 60 years.

Professionally, we work together, assisting not-for-profit performing arts centers and theaters across the country with raising capital and operating funds, strengthening their boards of directors, and doing long-range planning.

We are both MBAs and, between us, have received the Distinguished Service Award from the North Carolina Association of Arts Councils, the Chairman's Award from Americans for The Arts and the Fan Taylor Award for outstanding service, creative thinking, leadership and significant impact on the profession of presenting the performing arts from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

If you can be in the Aspen, CO, area in early August 2009, please join us for the following:

Aug 5 at 7 pm lecture (free and open to the public)

Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado, will host a free lecture by us on ''Contemporary Japanese sculptural ceramics -- an explosion of creativity!'' in Schermer Meeting Hall. We will highlight works that are extraordinarily innovative, with diversity of techniques, forms, and textures. We will discuss what factors nurtured the unique explosion of ceramic creativity in Japan over the last 60 years.

Aug 6 - 5-8 pm reception and 6 pm gallery talks (free and open to the public) We were very honored and excited, in conjunction with our lecture at the Anderson Ranch, to be asked to curate the exhibition ''Breaking from Tradition: Japanese Ceramics Today'' at the Harvey / Meadows Gallery in Aspen Highlands Village, CO, which will be on display August 6 through September 4. With over 10,000 ceramic artists making a living in Japan, we hope you will encounter these fourteen, who we believe to be among the best and most creative talents working in Japanese sculptural ceramics today. Each in his or her own way has broken from tradition with innovative ideas, creative forms, patented new glazes, remarkable textures, and inventive building and firing techniques. They range from senior pioneers active since the start of the sculptural movement in the 1950s to emerging young talents. Some have studied at academic institutions while others are descendents of long lines of distinguished ceramic traditions. The work of every member may be found in numerous museum collections in America. All have been richly recognized with awards and honors both in Japan and abroad; furthermore, most have been included in several important international exhibitions. Our heartfelt appreciation goes to the artists for their sheer creative brilliance. Their works never cease to amaze and delight us. We would like to thank Joan B Mirviss Ltd gallery in New York City for generously supplying the work we have chosen for the exhibition. Additional information can be found online. Download the brochure (pdf format).

Aug 7 to Oct 18, 2009 Sacramento, CA
Crocker Art Museum is the first US venue hosting ''Soaring Voices: Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists'' that will have just moved from Mus�e national de cèramique Sèvres, France, and is scheduled to tour across America. Soaring Voices surveys the accomplishments of 26 leading female figures in contemporary Japanese ceramics. Additional information can be found online.

Works from the Halsey and Alice North Collection have been exhibited in:
CELEBRATING KYOTO:
Modern Arts from Boston's Sister City
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
December 10, 2008 to September 7, 2009
The exhibition featured 14 ceramic works from the Collection of Halsey and Alice North. Dr. Anne Nishimura Morse, William and Helen Pounds Curator of Japanese Art, Department of Art of Asia, Oceania, and Africa said: ''Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Boston-Kyoto Sister City relationship at this vibrant exhibition focusing on contemporary ceramics and prints created by artists in Kyoto and the surrounding Kansai region. Included are ceramics on loan from private collections and ceramics and prints from the Museum's collection. In addition, contemporary textiles by four Kyoto artists illustrate the rich melding of traditional Japanese textile traditions with innovative processes and methods.''

CONTEMPORARY CLAY:
Japanese Ceramics for the New Century
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
October 7, 2005 to July 9, 2006
and
Japan Society Gallery, Japan Society
New York City
September 29, 2006 - January 21, 2007
The exhibition featured 103 ceramic works "which range from painstakingly crafted porcelains inspired by Chinese prototypes, through rough-hewn vessels that revel in the happy accidents of wood-fired kilns, to ironic objets that mimic newspapers, discarded trash and body parts. Largely drawn from the collection of New Yorkers Halsey and Alice North, the selection reflects their informed taste in its bias toward works made by artists based in Kyoto who challenge the traditional supremacy of utilitarian forms in respectful yet innovative, creative, and iconoclastic ways."
Joe Earle, Curator of the exhibition and, currently, Vice President, Japan Society and Director, Japan Society Gallery, New York (formerly, Matsutaro Shoriki Chair, Art of Asia, Oceania, & Africa, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

101-page catalogue with 70 illustrations written by Joe Earle with Halsey and Alice North for the Museum of Fine Arts Boston's CONTEMPORARY CLAY: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century exhibition. Available through MFA Publications, phone 617-369-3438, fax 617-369-3459.

Ceramics by (left to right): Kishi Eiko, Sakiyama Takayuki, and (top to bottom) Mishima Kimiyo, Takiguchi Kazuo, Kiyomizu Rokubey VII, and Matsuda Yuriko.

Ceramics by Fukami Sueharu.