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Asia Week New York Art Shows Take Over Upper East Side.
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1stdibs.com has written profiles of the individual galleries participating in Asia Week, including Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. Click here to read the article.

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Japanese folding screens, delicate but durable, enshrine centuries of painting tradition click to view.

We are mentioned in the article "Pan-Asian Fusion," which focuses on great galleries to visit for Asia Week 2013. Download a PDF of the article here.

Joan B. Mirviss' feature ad for the annual Winter Antiques Show of 2013.

How do artworks and furniture from the 16th century to the present get into museums? Most international survey museums were built upn the existing collections of aristocrats or the donations of wealthy patron. But new acqusitinons often go through art dealers, and an art fair like The Salon: Art + Design is the kind of place where you might see a few before they find institutional homes.

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By HOLLAND COTTER
Published: September 27, 2012

Have any artists ever, anywhere, caught the hello-ness of spring and the farewell-ness of autumn more sweetly and sharply than the Rimpa painters of Japan? Two shimmering fall exhibitions, one at Japan Society and the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, argue persuasively that no, no artists ever have.

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Earth & Alchemy opens at MassArt's Stephen D. Paine Gallery on Monday, September 24th. Gallery doors open for viewing at noon. At 6pm there will be a public reception.

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12 Septmber to 19 October
The works of Nakamura Takuo, born in 1945, are the sole subject of this exhibition which is timed to coincide with the exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at Japan Society. The ceramics will include freestanding sculptural and functional vessels that incorporate the uniquely Japanese painting aesthetic known as Rimpa, sometimes spelled these days as Rinpa. Because of his strength of form, copacetic decoration and excellence of execution, Nakamura's work can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa.

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This autumn marks the thirty-fifth year Joan B Mirviss LTD has been a leader in the field of Japanese fine art. In celebration of this momentous occasion, we are pleased to present the first of several remarkable exhibitions.

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The tea ceremony is a prominent feature of life in Kanazawa. Many citizens are involved with the traditions of tea on a daily basis, and ceremonies are held regularly throughout the city. Kutani-ware ceramicist Takuo Nakamura, a leader in the Kanazwa crafts world whose work exudes a highly original, fully modern aesthetic, agreed to host a tea ceremony for us in the contemporary style for which he is known.

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Tai Gallery has a Japanese ceramics show with works from a broad mix of contemporary ceramicists as well as a show within itself, Desert Bloom, of Fujino Sachiko's work. On the Avant Garde of Japanese pottery, the collective offers clay in all different shapes and sizes but which consistently maintain the core structure of vessel.

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Until recently, Japanese ceramic art has been a male-dominate field, with women forbidden even to touch a kiln.

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My first impression of Kayoko’s ceramics was that of a double take. At a first glance, the simple ceramics look like carved rocks but how could they be if the label is calling them ceramics? Then on closer inspection one quickly adjusts the eye with the rational to appreciate beautiful contemporary ceramics made by a gifted artist.

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By Nami Hoppin
An exhibition at the Joan Mirviss Gallery in New York explores the dramatically increasing importance of Japanese women artists on
the global stage.

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NEW YORK, NY.- This exhibition titled The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and their Passion for France, explores the dramatically increasing importance of Japanese women artists in the current ascendency of contemporary Japanese ceramics on a global stage and focuses on how their relationships to France have influenced, and indeed enabled, the five show-cased artists to find their unique voices. Stifled at one time or another by Japan’s restrictive view in the role of women and the lack of freedom with regard to their career choices, especially in the arena of ceramics, these committed female artists have successfully overturned such limitations by choosing to train/study/work/live abroad, particularly in Paris. Maintaining professional and personal contacts with both countries, they have managed to succeed in ways unavailable to their male colleagues.

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New York City - "The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and Their Passion for France" is at Joan B. Mirviss Ltd through August 3. An exhibition of incredible sculptures by Futamura Yoshimi, Katsumata Chieko, Nagasawa Setsuko, Ogawa Machiko and Sakurai Yasuko seeks to expose the very nature of clay, exploiting its flexibility and suppleness in arresting ways.

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"Women ceramists in Japan often confront insurmountable barriers when pursuing their career in an artistic industry regulated by an entrenched succession system of craftsmen transferring skills (and businesses) to their male heirs. Many women ceramists, disenfranchised by the rigid patriarchal system, opt to leave home to hone their craft and build their oeuvres abroad. Impressive works by five Japanese women who have done just that are currently the focus of an enlightening exhibition at the Joan B Mirviss Gallery, an exquisite space in the Upper East Side of New York. The well-crafted show, titled "The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and Their Passion for France," showcases works by Futamura Yoshimi, Katsumata Chieko, Nagasawa Setsuko, Ogawa Machiko, and Sakurai Yasuko – all established their reputation through their shared love for France."

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For centuries, women in Japan were not even permitted to touch a kiln, lest their "impurity" taint whatever was baking. Yet in the past decade, women clay artists have come to outnumber men in Japan's art schools, and the next generation of master ceramists is shaping up to be disproportionately female.

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Now on view at Joan Mirviss Gallery are "The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramicists and a Passion for France" and "Guided by the Brush". The exhibits present the work of five leading female ceramic artists and the work of a 99 year-old calligrapher and painter whose worldwide successes stand out in their male-dominated fields. The show runs through August 3rd at the Upper East Side Gallery.

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"Ceramics and calligraphy—considered Japan’s most significant art mediums—traditionally have been male-dominated art forms, and only recently have women been allowed to pursue these areas of study and apprenticeship. A new exhibit in New York will celebrate the work of five Japanese female ceramists and the country’s leading female calligrapher, who is 99 years old. Their work is being presented from June 5 through August 3 at the Joan B. Mirviss gallery in exhibits entitled 'The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and a Passion for France' and 'Guided by the Brush.' "

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" Ceramics and calligraphy—considered Japan’s most significant art mediums—traditionally have been male-dominated art forms, and only recently have women been allowed to pursue these areas of study and apprenticeship. A new exhibit in New York will celebrate the work of five Japanese female ceramists and the country’s leading female calligrapher, who is 99 years old. Their work is being presented from June 5 through August 3 at the Joan B. Mirviss gallery in exhibits entitled 'The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and a Passion for France' and 'Guided by the Brush.' "

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Ceramics and calligraphy—considered Japan’s most significant art mediums—traditionally have been male-dominated art forms, and only recently have women been allowed to pursue these areas of study and apprenticeship. A new exhibit in New York will celebrate the work of five Japanese female ceramists and the country’s leading female calligrapher, who is 99 years old. Their work is being presented from June 5 through August 3 at the Joan B. Mirviss gallery in exhibits entitled 'The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and a Passion for France' and 'Guided by the Brush.' "

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"Joan Mirviss and Alison Tolman are pleased to announce their collaboration on two important exhibitions being held simultaneously at Joan B Mirviss LTD. Guided by the Brush and The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and their Passion for France shine a spotlight on pioneering Japanese women in two distinct artistic media: ink painting and clay. Together these two exhibitions offer insights into the power and range of achievement by these accomplished women, artists who stand on the world stage and whose works can be found in major museum collections across the globe."

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"This exhibition titled THE FRENCH CONNECTION: FIVE JAPANESE WOMEN CERAMISTS AND THEIR PASSION FOR FRANCE, explores the dramatically increasing importance of Japanese women artists in the current ascendency of contemporary Japanese ceramics on a global stage and focuses on how their relationships to France have influenced, and indeed enabled, the five show-cased artists to find their unique voices. Stifled at one time or another by Japan’s restrictive view in the role of women and the lack of freedom with regard to their career choices, especially in the arena of ceramics, these committed female artists have successfully overturned such limitations by choosing to train/study/work/live abroad, particularly in Paris. Maintaining professional and personal contacts with both countries, they have managed to succeed in ways unavailable to their male colleagues. These women have come to this life-style via varied routes, some working exclusively in France while others have studios in both countries and still another works exclusively in Kyoto after years in Limoges. Spanning two generations, these five women reflect the changes occurring both in Japan and in the field internationally. But all are clearly pioneers especially when in viewed from an historical perspective."

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"Ceramics and calligraphy—considered Japan’s most significant art mediums—traditionally have been male-dominated art forms, and only recently have women been allowed to pursue these areas of study and apprenticeship. A new exhibit in New York will celebrate the work of five Japanese female ceramists and the country’s leading female calligrapher, who is 99 years old. Their work is being presented from June 5 through August 3 at the Joan B. Mirviss gallery in exhibits entitled 'The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and a Passion for France' and 'Guided by the Brush.' "

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**MARK YOUR CALENDAR**
Soaring Voices: Recent Ceramics by Women From Japan, the seminal exhibition which has been touring since 2009, will have its final installation at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, Schaefer International Gallery in Hawaii.

October 20, 2012 - January 6, 2013

Symposium Panel in Castle Theater
Sunday, October 21st
9 am - 3 pm
Guest speakers include: Joan Mirviss, David Kuraoka (moderator), Hiroko Miura (Curator of Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park), Maya Nishi, Anne Morse (Senior Curator of Japanese Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), Halsey and Alice North.

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Guided by the Brush: Paintings and Lithographs by SHINODA Toko and The French Connection: Five Japanese Women Ceramists and their Passion for France.

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"Unfamiliar landscape prints by familiar names – mainly Katsushika Hokusai and Utagawa Hiroshige – dominate this lavish show, and their superb condition has kept the colors strikingly vivid. The grandly descriptive can turn grandly abstract on a dime, especially when Hokusai tackles waterfalls in vertical formats. Also noteworthy are the prints of his lesser-known cotemporary Keisai Eisen, whose inclination to give tumbling water the solidity of nearby rocks has a bracing visionary force."
- R. Smith

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"The overall exuberance and acquisitive atmosphere were reminiscent of Asia Weeks of the late 1990s," said Joan Mirviss, who reported that the response from collectors and enthusiasts to her exhibition "Approaching the Horizon: Important Japanese Prints from the Collection of Brewster Hanson" was exhilarating. "By the close of Asia Week's openhouse weekend, we had sold nearly 60% of the exhibition (which included sixty-eight prints). In terms of attendance and participation, this year's Asia Week was tremendous and far exceeded those in recent memory."

More Information: http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=54447[/url]
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New York City - In Conjunction with Asia Week New York, Joan B. Mirviss Ltd is presenting "Approaching the Horizon: Important Japanese Prints from the Collection of Brewster Hanson," an exhibition of particularly fine impressions of some of the most coveted designs of Hiroshige, including masterworks by Hokusai, Eisen and Yoshitoshi.

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excerpt:
"At the Joan B. Mirviss gallery on the Upper East Side, the dealer is selling the collection of Brewster Hanson, a lifelong fan of Japanese art, who died in 2008. At the time Hanson was collecting prints, his tastes were supposedly more Japanese than European, meaning he obtained many rare, top-quality prints without competition, according to Mirviss. However, the pendulum has swung, it seems. Before the show even opened Mirviss reported that half of the catalogue had been sold, mostly the more expensive (and more rare) prints."

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New York never lacks for art, but as spring approaches, movable feasts of it seem to arrive in waves. Last week nearly a dozen fairs put exra servings of contemporary and Modern art on the table. Friday is the official beginning of Asia Week, a visual repast of more than 40 shows staged by New York and out-of-town dealers and spread mostly through galleries around the Upper East Side, on or just off Madison Avenue.

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Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. 19 March - 13 April
This is an exhibition of particularly fine impressions of some of the most coveted designs of Hiroshige, including masterworks by Hokusai, Eisen and Yoshitoshi. Prints from the Brewster Hanson Collection were assembled from acquisitions made around the world.

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"Asia Week New York 2012 retains a similar format to that seen last year and again comprises dozens of special events and exhibitions. The ‘Asia Week’ group (AWNY) is made up of more than thirty galleries, and involves five auction houses – Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Bonhams, Doyle New York and iGavel – and several museums and Asian cultural institutions (16-24 March; for further information and a detailed calendar and map of events, see www.asiaweekny.com). "

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"With each successive year, Asia Week New York grows bigger and better. In 2012, no fewer than five auction houses will offer relevant sales of artworks and artifacts from China, Korea, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia, and 17 museums and other institutions will offer special programming. Indeed, the festivities cannot fit within a single week—Asia Week New York officially starts on March 16 and continues through March 24."

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"Each year, more and more designers and their clients recognize how well Asian art and antiques complement diverse interiors. According to Joan Mirviss, a Japanese art specialist and participant in Asia Week New York, both private clients and professional designers are placing Japanese screens, ceramics, and woodblock prints in very different interiors-those with English or French eighteenth-century furnishings as well as one with Modernist or contemporary furniture. Says Mirviss: 'The purity of line, the expression of asymmetry, the focus on simplicity, the remarkable palette-all these elements make Japanese art and antiques such becoming counterparts to nearly every style of interior design.' "

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A touring exhibition including our artists: Fukumoto Fuku, Fujino Sachiko, Katsumata Chieko, Kishi Eiko, Kitamura Junko, Koike Shoko, Mishima Kimiyo, Sakurai Yasuko, Shimizu Sachiko and Tashima Etsuko.

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Winter Antiques Show - The Evolution of Taste p.7

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Western and Japanese potters have influenced one another at least since the 1940s. Artisans on various continents have painted Pop Art checkerboards on traditional tea-bowl forms and used ancient raku firing techniques on jokily unusable perforated vases. “Conversations in Clay — West Meets East: A Collector’s Perspective,” an exhibition through Jan. 6 at the Joan B. Mirviss gallery in Manhattan, pairs about 30 Japanese pieces from the gallery’s inventory with American and European counterparts (with prices mostly a few thousand dollars each).

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Learn about collecting from this leading dealer who will provide perspective on the history of collecting Japanese prints in the United States and Europe from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. Mirviss will also compare past and present standards of connoisseurship and offer guidelines for today’s collector. Portland Art Museum's exhibition webpage

Work shop on December 3rd, "Guided Tour through the Methods for Identification, Authentication, and Connoisseurship of Ukiyo-e Prints." Information about Saturday's workshop

NEW YORK, N.Y.- For the first time since Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. began representing Japanese ceramics in the mid '80s, Western artists will be presented together with their Japanese counterparts in this intimate exhibit entitled Conversations in Clay – West Meets East: A Collector's Perspective. The show, curated by Steven Korff in collaboration with Joan Mirviss, finds its inspiration in Korff's integrated collection of ceramic art that includes important artists from both backgrounds, from Hamada Shôji to Hans Coper, Carlo Zauli to Akiyama Yô.

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The Museum of Art and Design has put together a selection from its permanent collection for a show entitled, "Beauty in All Things: Japanese Art and Design" which includes some of our artists: Kondo Takahiro, Kishi Eiko, Koike Shoko, Kohyama Yasuhisa, Sakiyama Takayuki, Imai Hyoe and Yoshikawa Masamichi.

Visit the museum's website for further information.

"Joan B. Mirviss Ltd is presenting "Fired by Tradition: Masterworks by Nishihata Tadashi" through July 29, featuring a completely fresh body of work by this Tanba master. Based in the riverside town of Tachikui in Hyogo Prefecture, home to the medieval ceramic center of Tanba, Tadashi (b 1948) works in the centuries-old traditions of his ancestors. As one of the six ancient kilns of Japan, Tanba has long been celebrated for its simple storage jars, vases and sake implements made from the local iron-rich clay and fired either unglazed or with natural and applied ash glazes.

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This beautifully curated show, subtitled "Pioneers of Japan's Sodeisha Ceramic Movement," celebrated the work of three artists who were the guiding lights of Japan's avant-garde ceramists. Yagi Kazuô (1918-79), Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001) and Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001) were founders of Sôdeisha ("Crawling Through the Mud Association"), a pottery collective formed in Kyoto in 1948. Until then, the country's venerable ceramics traditions focused on tea bowls, jars, and other utilitarian objects.

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The 14th annual Sculpture Objects & Functional Art Fair at the Park Avenue Armory enjoyed steady crowds and sales, from the well-attended vernissage on April 13 straight through its four-day run, which ended on Sunday, April 17. An estimated 2000 persons attended Opening Night throughout the course of the evening, and an after-preview benefit dinner in the Armory's Tiffany Room for the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) honoring Judy Cornfield was a sell-out. MAD also sponsored the new MAD Den Video Lounge designed by NY architect/designer David Ling, adding yet another media to the stimulating mix of art and design at the fair.

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One newer area of collection development is contemporary Japanese ceramics, an art form that complements our significant and well-respected Van Vleck Collection of Japanese Prints. Japan has a centuries-old ceramics tradition, renowned for both beauty and innovation, and potters there continue to produce some of the most striking and influential pottery in the world. Joan Mirviss, an alumna of the UW-Madison's Department of Art History, is an expert and dealer in Japanese art; one of her specialties is contemporary ceramics.

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At that same masterly level, a hand-thrown group of remarkably sculpted, unglazed stoneware by Kyoto's Akiyama Yo at Joan B. Mirviss Gallery of New York, made it almost worth the $25 price of general admission. Suffused with iron powder and vinegar, the wheel-thrown pieces undergo an ever-changing patina of corten-steel like rusty colors as they oxidize. It makes one think of Richard Serra, but on a smaller and safer scale.

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Joan B. Mirviss, Ltd, will present a major solo show of internationally acclaimed artist Akiyama Yo (b 1953) who lives, works and teaches in Kyoto, Japan. This exhibition, on view April 18-May 20, will be Japan's highly acclaimed artist's second in the United States.

"Tension and Transition" includes more than ten sculptural clay works created for this presentation. Though using a basic stoneware clay, Akiyama's aesthetic pushes past any traditional concepts for ceramics; his art has much more in common with the work of contemporary sculptors like Richard Serra than the utilitarian ceramics for which Kyoto is historically known.

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In the hours following the March 11 earthquake in northeast Japan, the New York-based nonprofit Japan Society launched an earthquake relief fund. Since then, donations to the fund have come in bit by bit from all corners of the city.

Nahoko Sugiyama and Kashimi Asai, alumnae of Dance New Amsterdam, organized a benefit dance performance with other graduates on March 20. The organization donated the theater space and the technical crew donated their time. The dancers donated $4,070 on Wednesday.

DJ Tadaaki Iwaki and pop-and-lock street dance performer Kenichi Ebina organized a performance and contributed $3,398; a stoop sale and bake sale held by Japanese moms in Brooklyn raised $3,800; a swing dance group organized by Japanese women held a "Swing for Japan" fund-raiser and contributed $5,700 to the fund.

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Collectors, curators, scholars and Asian art enthusiasts from around the world convened for Asia Week New York 2011 in March—nine days of exhibitions, private sales, public auctions, special events and fund-raising, spending more than $250 million on Asian art. Complementing Asian exhibitions at 18 New York-area museums and cultural institutions were thousands of ancient through contemporary Asian works of art at 5 leading auction houses and at the venues of 34 Asian art specialists exhibiting in New York. Dealers from the U.S. and abroad reported double and triple the attendance over last year with strong sales to collectors and institutions based in the United States, Europe, Hong Kong and mainland China with many works on reserve by museums.

Asia Week New York 2011 sales highlights include:

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It's hard to think about art in the face of nightmarish human tragedy. As Japan attempts to get back on its feet after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, news on the nation's contemporary structures and historic sites trickles in. Eiji Mizushima of the Japan committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) has sent out e-mail updates as information becomes available.

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Since its opening on March 16 for Asia Week New York 2011, "Birds of Dawn: Pioneers of Japan's Sôdeisha Ceramic Movement," the exhibition currently on view at Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. at 39 East 78th Street, has been attracting tremendous attention from collectors, curators, the media and the public-at-large. The show focuses on the three seminal founders of the extremely influential Sôdeisha ceramic movement: Yagi Kazuo (1918-79), Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001), and Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001).

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ASIA has been even more in the forefront of the public conversation since the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and continuing nuclear radiation fallout. The conversation reaches near fever pitch on an upbeat note as New York hosts two important Asian-themed art bazaars. Both have added "Help Japan" components. The rechristened Asia Week New York continues through Saturday (26 March), while Asian Contemporary Art Week commences at 7 tonight at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) with the film series, “Modern Mondays: An Evening with Mariam Ghani.”

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Not so long ago Manhattan’s annual spring Asia Week was feeling diminished. The Asian Art Fair had folded. Gallery shows were scattered around town. Collective energy was low. Not so long ago Manhattan’s annual spring Asia Week was feeling diminished. The Asian Art Fair had folded. Gallery shows were scattered around town. Collective energy was low.

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Acting in an unprecedented collaboration, more than 30 prominent Asian art specialists, 5 auction houses and 18 museums and Asian cultural institutions in the metropolitan New York City area will join forces to present Asia Week New York 2011, taking place from March 18-26.

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While Japan struggles to recover from the devastating effects of the earthquake and tsunami of March 11, artists and arts organizations around the world are coming together in a show of support for the island nation. Japan-related events in New York as part of this month's Asia Week are being recast as tributes or fundraisers for earthquake victims, while artists in various countries are coming up with creative ways to respond to the disaster and raise needed funds for the victims and their families.

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More than 60 works from Japan’s Sôdeisha Ceramic Movement will be on display at New York’s Joan B. Mirviss Ltd art gallery on East 78th Street from March 16 through April 29 to coincide with Asia Week New York 2011. The exhibition, titled Birds of Dawn, showcases the unique work of artists Yagi Kazuo, Suzuki Osamu, and Yamada Hikaru.

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Over ten years in the making, Joan Mirviss Ltd presents “Birds of Dawn: Pioneers of Japan’s Sôdeisha Ceramic Movement,” which opens on March 16, 2011, at 39 East 78th Street in New York.This exhibition, which coincides with Asia Week New York, will focus on three seminal founders of this extremely influential movement: Yagi Kazuo (1918-79), Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001), and Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001). More than sixty works by this Kyoto triumvirate will be on view and offered for sale.

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New York Asia Week, launched by the auction houses in the early 1990s, presumes that people who are interested in Tibetan sculpture might somehow also be interested in Malaysian batik and Chinese contemporary. Twenty years on, this fiction is stronger than ever, perhaps because it's fun, the idea of looking at art made during the past three millennia on the world's largest and most populous continent.

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Asia Week gets off to an auspicious start March 18 with an elegant reception at the Asia Society. Then, over the course of nine days, 34 Asian art dealers—along with the Asia Society, Japan Society, Rubin Museum, China Institute and the auction houses Bonham’s, Christie’s, Sotheby’s, Doyle New York and iGavel—will present exhibitions, lectures, discussions, sales, concerts, films and a gala benefit reception and dinner, with everything open to the public. The range is astonishing.

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Asia Week New York 2011 is an unprecedented collaboration among Asian art specialists, 5 auction houses and 18 museums and Asian cultural institutions in the metropolitan New York area from March 18-26, 2011. Simultaneous exhibitions presented by 34 prominent Asian art dealers from the U.S and abroad, auctions at Bonhams, Christie's, Sotheby's, Doyle New York and iGavel, as well as dozens of special events are planned for this period.

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Incorporating five auction houses and 17 museums and Asian cultural institutions, this year's Asia Week also showcases specially-curated exhibitions at nearly three dozen galleries. In addition, the Japan Society is pleased to announce the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. The Japan Society has created a disaster relief fund to aid victims of the Tohoku earthquake in Japan. Over the years, Japan Society has partnered with several Japanese and American nonprofits working on the frontlines of disaster relief and recovery. 100% of your generous tax-deductible contributions will go to organization(s) that directly help victims recover from the devastating effects of the earthquake and tsunamis that struck Japan on March 11, 2011.

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Over ten years in the making, Joan Mirviss Ltd presents "Birds of Dawn: Pioneers of Japan's Sôdeisha Ceramic Movement," which opens on March 16, 2011, at 39 East 78th Street in New York. This exhibition, which coincides with Asia Week New York, will focus on three seminal founds of this extremely influential movement: Yagi Kazuo (1918-79), Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001), and Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001). More than sixty works by this Kyoto triumvirate will be on view and offered for sale.

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Over ten years in the making, Joan Mirviss Ltd presents “Birds of Dawn: Pioneers of Japan’s Sôdeisha Ceramic Movement,” which opens on March 16, 2011, at 39 East 78th Street in New York. This exhibition, which coincides with Asia Week New York, will focus on three seminal founders of this extremely influential movement: Yagi Kazuo (1918-79), Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001), and Yamada Hikaru (1923-2001). More than sixty works by this Kyoto triumvirate will be on view and offered for sale.

"With their non-traditional avant-garde approach favoring sculptural ceramics, the art of Suzuki Osamu, Yagi Kazuo and Yamada Hikaru has always captivated me,” said Mirviss, who marks her thirty-fifth year as a specialist in the world of Japanese art. “About ten years ago, I started to think about the viability of an exhibition in New York that would include some of their important works,” she added. “Nothing like this has ever been staged anywhere– including Japan.” According to Mirviss, acquiring a significant body of major work by these celebrated masters was a task that required over two decades of networking in Japan.

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The long history of the Kondô clan has the elements of a grand saga - a samurai's defense of the imperial court, the subsequent gift of a central piece of Kyoto real estate, and an eventual fall from grace - but, just as significantly, the family's story over the last century mirrors the evolution of the great artistic tradition of Japanese ceramics.

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Continuing with her ongoing effort to present cutting-edge contemporary Japanese ceramics, this fall and winter Joan B. Mirviss Ltd will present three consecutive exhibitions illuminating the world of postwar contemporary ceramics in Japan.

"These three exhibitions represent over ten years of planning with careful negotiations and coordination with multiple Japanese sources. For a dealer anywhere to have one or possibly two works by any of these artists is rare enough, but to present such a large body of exceptionally rare material by these artists outside a museum is unprecedented," said Mirviss.

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Over the next four months the New York dealer Joan Mirviss is presenting a crash course in postwar Japanese ceramics throw three shows of objects rarely seen in this country and fresh to the market. "Kondô Yutaka: The transformation of a Kyoto Family," running from November 10 through December 17 at Mirviss's East 78th Street gallery, looks at three generations of the storied Kondô clan of ceramists.

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Joan B. Mirviss will present three consecutive exhibitions illuminating the world of post-war contemporary ceramics in Japan. This first show of over 40 works of art, focuses on the work of Kondô Yutaka (1932-83), a remarkable artist and gifted teacher who inspired many of today's established clay artists in Japan, who was the pivotal figure in his ceramic family before his untimely death. Drawn from the family's collection and offered for the first time, fourteen of his works will be seen in the context of his highly unusual heritage, both as a member of a Kyoto samurai family and as the son of the celebrated ceramist and designated Living National Treasure for cobalt blue-and-white (sometsuke) porcelain, Kondô Yûzo (1902-85).

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Japanese porcelain with good provenance offer prime area for collectors, while the market for contemporary Japanese ceramics is heating up.

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There's probably no better place to start collecting art than with ceramics. Comparatively, they are more economical to begin with. And just like prints and paintings, they are flexible even with themed decorating.

With several artists rising to become popular ceramics painters, there are several selections that are a good place to start a collection.

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Conventional wisdom for the new collector used to be: "Start with prints and as you learn more, graduate to painting." Today, on the contrary, another approach is build an art collection by acquiring ceramics. A good place to begin is the current show of sparkling and richly detailed enameled porcelain of Jun Takegoshi at the Joan B. Mirviss LTD gallery on New York's Upper East Side. Takegoshi's (b.1948) polychrome enamel vessels won't send you to the bank for a second mortgage.

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Dealers and galleries at the second annual SOFA WEST: Santa Fe 2010 held July 8-11 at the Santa Fe Convention Center reported steady sales, most to new clients from all over the United States. Overall fair attendance climbed to 12,000 from 10,000 persons last year. An estimated 1800 persons attended Opening Night on July 7, which was a special member preview for the prestigious Museum of New Mexico Foundation and SOFA VIPs.

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While the Chelsea art world grinds to a halt and New York City swelters in 90-degree heat, the Santa Fe art district in marked contrast is surprisingly buoyant. A total of 250 galleries line the streets of the New Mexico state capital, and empty shop fronts are few...

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A tension between the old and the new can also be seen in the conceptual ceramic art of Japanese artist, Akiyama Yo, represented by Manhattan's Joan B Mirviss, Ltd., long-time SOFA exhibitor in New York, but new to SOFA WEST. Widely considered to be one of the greatest ceramic artists living today, Akiyama was a member of the extremely influential Kyoto avant-garde group Sodeisha, which eschewed traditional Japanese ceramic functionalism in favor of modernist sculpture and contemporary abstraction. Mirviss says, "Akiyama's work is created with the theme of disintegration in nautre and how life returns to clay.

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Fair City:
Santa Fe gears up for summer, its busiest season, with a packed schedule of art fairs and associated events.

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The Joan B. Mirviss Ltd. booth at SOFA NEW YORK 2010
Even opening the fair on tax day did not scare off buyers. A stunning case in point—Joan Mirviss of Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., New York sold 23 pieces by the celebrated Japanese ceramicist Koike Shoko within 30 minutes of the show's opening. "Opening night was very strong," said Mirviss. "In addition to SOFA's regular clients, there were many new faces who expressed serious and knowledgeable interest in what we presented. I could have sold my show twice and some pieces 2 or 3 times. It's the best SOFA I've had thus far."

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The opening of this week's Sculpture Objects and Functional Art Fair (SOFA) packed the Park Avenue Armory with dealers, collectors, and contemporary design and decorative art by some of the world's most esteemed craftspeople. With a buoyant crowd of 2,500 — a full 300 more than last year's record-breaking turnout — the aisles teemed with booths manned by 58 dealers from 11 countries, who will be selling their wares through this Monday.

New York dealer Joan Mirviss brought 23 pieces of Japanese ceramics by Koike Shoko, one of the leading female ceramicists to come out of postwar Japan, known for her shell-inspired spiral clay forms. Within a half hour of the show's opening, 22 of them had been sold.

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'Idiosyncratic Fashionistas,' Majestic Vessels, Unwieldy Jewels at SOFA's Opening Night

After the tremendous upsurge in interest in contemporary art in 2006-2008, and the market doldrums of 2009, this year’s Asia Week has repositioned itself and was jointly organized by the Asia Society and the Asian Art Dealers of New York (AADNY).
AADNY hosted a reception at the Rubin Museum of Art on March 19, heralding the
official start of Asian Art Week.
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NEW YORK, NY.- The Asian Art Dealers New York (AADNY) will launch Asia Week New York with thirty special exhibitions opening concurrently at galleries throughout Manhattan, commencing on March 20-21, 2010. This is the first time a group of dealers, acting as a unified entity, has staged an event of this magnitude. International dealers will travel to New York from England, France, Italy and Japan to join their American colleagues in presenting rare works of art to collectors, curators, and scholars who converge here annually for Asia Week New York to see the very best on offer.

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http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=36251

http://www.1stdibs.com/articles/style_compass/paul_wiseman/index.php
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Museum of East Asian Art (Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst)
Universitätsstraße 100, D-50674,
Cologne, Germany
Oct 31, 2009 To Jan 10, 2010

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March 13, 2009: As a highlight of Asia Week in New York, we spoke with Joan B. Mirviss, a veteran dealer who specializes in Japanese painting, woodblock prints, and contemporary ceramics. Mirviss discusses the market, the Haughtons, and Kawase Shinobu, the ceramics artist whose work is currently on view at her gallery.

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Over the last several years there has been an increasing number of dealers who have chosen to abandon the International Asian Art Fair and to exhibit independently in several locations in New York, principally on the Upper East Side. This year, with the International's cancellation, leaving those exhibitors without a venue, and the relocation of the Arts of Pacific Asia Show to new quarters on West 34th Street, a certain level of reorganisation was needed, a situation compounded by the existing economic uncertainty.

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Surimono: Poetic Allusion in Japanese Prints
Museum Rietberg Zürich

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The market for Japanese art and antiques seems to be thriving in Manhattan. Although there are only a handful of serious specialized dealers (private and public), most do well selling a mixture of antique screens, paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, lacquerware, metalwork and textiles, Last year Joan B. Mirviss saw her business growing so quickly, after adding contemporary ceramics, that she moved to a new gallery at 39 East 78th Street.

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This exhibition will mark Joan Mirviss' first anniversary in her Madison Avenue gallery. Kaneta Masanao, born in 1953, is an 8th generation potter at Hagi, one of the greatest of the traditional Japanese kilns. The old Japanese adage is Raku first, Hagi second, Karatsu third. Like the pottery tradition at Satsuma, the Hagi tradition began with potters brought from Korea after Hideyoshi's invasion of that country and, like the early Satsuma wares and others, the Korean potters at Hagi produced wares for the Tea Ceremony.

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Japanese ukiyo-e prints are certainly hogging the limelight this month, what with the exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum and the Asia Society and the Exhibition of very early prints and books at Sebastian Izzard Asian Art, this subject-specific exhibition at Joan B. Mirviss Ltd guarantees that the field of ukiyo-e, in all of its shades, will be properly covered and available to be seen.

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Asia Week in New York is neatly topped and tailed this year. Launching the events is the International Asian Art Fair, which moves both dates and venue to show from 15 to 19 March at the newly refurbished 583 Park Avenue, a handsome red-brick Georgian-style landmark building two blocks south of the fair's previous home in the Armory. Lingering on beyond the saleroom auctions is a glorious array of dealer shows, which now contribute so much to the diversity and quality of Asian art, old and new, in the city.

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For many years, Joan has been known as a private dealer with respected expertise in Japanese screens, paintings, wood prints and contemporary and modern ceramics. In her new gallery, opened this year to accommodate requirements for established and new collectors, she has organized this exhibition as a subject-specific show of not just contemporary ceramics, but works by today's leading women ceramic artists.

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No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone." So wrote T.S. Eliot in his classic essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent." Eliot claimed that rather than existing in conflict with tradition, an individual artist gains significance only through strenuous engagement with it. Not surprisingly, Eliot's views remain controversial, but his belief seems strikingly relevant to the extraordinary show of Japanese contemporary ceramics recently on exhibit at New York's Japan Society.

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Ever since the 19th-century English designer Christopher Dresser picked up a deliberately rough Japanese tea bowl and wrote in ecstasy about the beauty of its texture compared with the sleek industrial finish of Western ceramics, there has been some understanding in the West of Japanese ceramics. This is growing now, fueled in part by the strong market for sculptural ceramics ("craft" is a word best avoided) in the US and Europe.

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Joan B. Mirviss calls herself a contrarian. So perhaps it is not surprising that she has just opened a gallery in Manhattan, even as rising rents increasingly cause antiques dealers to close their shops and sell privately. For the last 30 years, Ms. Mirviss has been a pioneering dealer in Japanese fine art and antiques. She has also been the curator of several museum exhibitions on Japanese art, including one in 1995 at the Phoenix Art Museum showing Frank Lloyd Wright's collection of surimono, privately published woodblock prints.

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Ancient Japanese screens, woodblock prints, scrolls, bronzes and contemporary ceramics by leading contemporary artists are on view in the exhibit "Views from the Past, Visions of the Future: Masterworks of Japanese Art." The show marks the inaugural exhibition at the newly opened Joan B. Mirviss Gallery.

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The owner of a gallery selling Japanese art that is opening in two weeks on 78th Street at Madison Avenue is backing into her new project. Joan Mirviss, a private dealer of Japanese fine art in America, Japan, and Europe will be turning her art dealing business, Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., into a gallery. "I'm doing everything backwards, as I always have done," the Japanese specialist of 30 years said. "this is a new challenge."

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To prepare the space for her first-ever gallery, opening this month on New York's Madison Avenue, Japanese art specialist Joan Mirviss had it blessed by a Buddhist monk.

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On 17 September, Joan B. Mirviss, a well-known private dealer in Japanese art, is opening a gallery at 39 East 78th Street in New York. The inaugural exhibition of around 55 works, 'Views form the Past, Visions of the Future: Masterworks of Japanese Art,' will be on view until 15 October. Displayed will be screens and paintings, many from old Japanese private collections, as well as woodblock prints and a range of ceramics, both from the second half of the 20thh century and contemporary works created specifically for the show. On behalf of Orientations, Margaret Tao interviewed Mirviss about the Japanese art field and her new gallery.

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Until now, Ms. Mirviss and her staff, three women all with museum experience, worked out of an apartment overlooking Central Park. There has built up a distinguished international clientele largely through exhibitions in other galleries around the country and at major fairs. these clients include some 50 of the world's top museums.

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Antiques dealer Joan B. Mirviss has been intrigued by Japanese art since her youth. "As a typical American child of the 1950s and 60s, I didn't have the opportunity to travel to Asia or Europe. However, I always had a fascination with things Japanese." As a university student in 1973 she studied ceramics in Japan and visited famous production centers such as Mashiko. While Japan is crowded with crafts from lacquer to textiles and dolls, it was ceramics that won her heart.

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