Koike Shôko

1943 Born in Beijing
1966 Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
1969 Completed postgraduate study in Ceramic Arts
Started to work at the kiln built in Tama-shi, Tokyo.
1969 Received the Salon de Printemps Award
2009 Awarded Japan Ceramic Society Prize

Solo Exhibitions:

1983 Inui Gallery, Tokyo (also in 1987)
1985 Savoir Vivre, Tokyo
1986 Galery Kandori, Tokyo (thereafter biannually through 2006)
1992 Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo (also in 1994, 2000)
1997 Contemporary Art Niki, Tokyo (also in 1999)
2000 Gallery Ao, Sendai
2001 Gallery Puchiboa, Osaka
2002 Silver Shell, Oiso, Kanagawa
2004 Space TRY, Tokyo (also in 1996, 2006)
Shop Gallery Tachibana, Tokyo
2006 Space TRY, Tokyo
2007 Gunjyô no Kanata kara, Museé Tomo, Tokyo
2010 Reflections on Nature at Joan B. Mirviss Ltd


Group Exhibitions:

1970 Mitsukoshi Gallery, Nihonbashi,Tokyo
Kawasaki Tsuyoshi + Koike Shoko, Gallery Ginga, Tokyo
1983 Tobu Department Store Gallery, Tokyo
1988 Ohara-Kaikan, Tokyo
Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
1991 Takashimaya Gallery, Osaka
1993-94 Modern Japanese Ceramics in American Collections, the Japan Society Gallery, New York; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; and Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu
1994 Fascinating Contemporary Ceramic Art, The Sôgetsu Art Museum, Tokyo
1995 The Now in Japanese Ceramics, Takashimaya Gallery, Tokyo and Kyoto
1996 The Expressions and the Potential in Contemporary Ceramics, Aichi Prefectural Ceramics Museum, Seto, Aichi
1997 The Domain of the Form: Functional Beauty and its Transmigration, Crafts Gallery, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Zetterquist Galleries, New York
1999 Gumps, San Francisco
2003 Japanese Contemporary Ceramics, Fourteen Radical Ceramists, the Museum of Art, Kochi
Now & Now World Contemporary Ceramics. the 2nd World Ceramics Biennale 2003, Korea
Japanese Ceramics Today, Musée Tomo Tokyo
2005 Contemporary Clay: Japanese ceramics for the new century, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
2006 Cool & Sopshisticated: Contemporary Master Ceramists of Eastern Japan, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Ibaraki
Musée Tomo, Contemporary Ceramics for the Tea Ceremony, Free Creativity and Atypical Usage, Musée Tomo, Tokyo
Tôji: Avant-Garde et Tradition de la Cèramique Japonaise, Musèe national de cèramique Sèvres, France
2007 Soaring Voices – Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists, The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga. Exhibition travels to New Otani Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; le musée National Céramique à Sèvres, Sèvres, France; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; The Katzen Arts Center at American University, Washington, DC; The Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dalla, TX; Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach, FL; The Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
2008 Gallery Kochuykyo, Tokyo, Japan
Generosity in Clay – Modern Japanese Ceramics from the Natalie Fitz Gerald Collection, The Clark Center for Japanese Art and Cilture, Hanford, CA
2009 Touch Fire: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics by Women Artists, Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition 2009, Tokyo
Two-person show of Koike Shoko and Kato Kozo, Gallery Kochukyo, Tokyo
Mirai no takaramono; The Future's Treasures, Takashimaya Art Gallery, Nihonbashi, Osaka, Shinjuku, Kyoto
2010 Japan Ceramic Society Award Winners 2010, Ginza Wako gallery, Tokyo


Public Collections:

Ackland Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, Texas
Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, Hanford, California
Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Musée Tomo, Tokyo
Musée national de céramique, Sèvres
Museum of Arts and Design, New York
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga
Victoria & Albert Museum, London




Television and Programs and Videos:

1997 "Shell––Watakushi no Utsuwa" (My Ceramic Vessel)
Koike Shôko's "Utsukushi no Sekai" series at NHK
1998 "Tsuchi ga Kanderu Rizumu"(Rhythmic Sense of Handing Clay)
Koike Shôko's "Yakimono Tanbô" series at NHK


Selected References:

TOSA-TOSA 2003 Yanagihara Mutsuo to Gendai tôgei no senei tachi, gendai tôgei no keifu [Yanagihara Mutsuo and Radical Contemporary Ceramists, Genealogy of Japanese Contemporary Ceramics] (The Museum of Art, Kochi, 2003): pp. 22-27.

Joe Earle, Contemporary Clay: Japanese ceramics for the new century, (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2005): pp. 48-49

Christine Shimizu, Tôji: Avant-Garde et Tradition de la Cèramique Japonaise, Editions de la rèunion des musèes nationaux, Paris, 2006

Soaring Voices – Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists; The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga, 2006

Nihon Tôgei-ten (Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition 2009), Tokyo: Mainichi Shimbun, 2009: pp. 35

Mason, Brook. “SOFA’s Back in Town: Manhattan’s Decorative Arts Show Seeks to Rally Market,” New York Observer, 19 April 2010 p. 42

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