Kondō Takahiro 近藤 高弘

Born in Kyoto, Japan

Throughout his career, Kondō Takahiro has striven to determine his own independent artistic identity through extensive experimentation. Born in Kyoto into a family celebrated for its traditional sometsuke (cobalt blue-and-white porcelain), he first began working with the challenging medium of porcelain and it has remained his principal material. As a young man he was a competitive sportsman, becoming a champion in table tennis and traveling abroad for competitions. Despite his exposure to clay at an early age, he did not seriously consider pursuing a career related to his family's art until he was in his twenties.

Kondo's early work followed the sometsuke tradition mastered by his grandfather and father and, like them, he was highly influenced by the work and writings of Tomimoto Kenkichi (1886-1963), who stressed the importance of balancing technique with originality. He quickly developed his own style and began to incorporate other media into his work, starting with metal then adding cast glass.

Kondo draws inspiration from the natural world, with water being a central theme.

This early experimentation resulted in his unique and highly distinctive "silver mist" (gintekisai) glaze, which is an amalgam of platinum, gold, silver and glass frit that ranges in appearance from a subtle shimmer to a stream of molten drops that cling and pool over the porcelain surfaces.

Water has been his principal theme for many years and he has explored not only its physical forms such as rain, ice, steam, and mist, but also its conceptual aspects as a source of life, purifier, natural resource, and, most currently, as a critical environmental issue in regards to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. Kondō was deeply affected by the natural disasters that befell Japan in 2011 and has incorporated his thoughts and feelings on the subject into most of his work since then. He continues to spend substantial time fund-raising and working with those residing in the areas most devastated by those cataclysmic events.

Aberdeen Art Gallery, UK
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, AR
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI
Chion-in Wajun-Kaikan, Kyoto, Japan
Cincinnati Art Museum, OH
Cultural Foundation of the New York Times, New York, NY
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Miho Museum, Koka, Japan
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shiga, Japan

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Musée national des arts asiatiques-GUIMET, Paris, France
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland
Paper Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Paramita Museum, Mie, Japan
Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA
Portland Art Museum, OR
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
São Paolo Museum, Brazil
Seattle Art Museum, WA
Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
Ulster National Museum, Holywood, UK
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

Kondō Takahiro 近藤 高弘 b. 1958

The Winter Show 2026

The Winter Show 2025

Eternal Partnership

10 x 10 Past and Present

Listening to Clay

Kondō Takahiro: Making Waves

The Winter Show 2021

The Artists of HANDS & EARTH

Vessel Explored / Vessel Transformed - Tomimoto Kenkichi and his Enduring Legacy

The Winter Show 2019

Timeless Elegance in Japanese Art: Celebrating 40 Years!

Ao: Colors of Nature in Blue+Green

Waves of Ink: Painting in Porcelain

A Palette for Genius

Japan in Black and White

The Eight Winds

The Salon Art + Design

SOFA:WEST (Santa Fe)

Kondo Yutaka

BREAKING FROM TRADITION / Japanese Ceramics Today

Kondo Takahiro

Views from the Past, Visions of the Future

Transcending Tradition

Kishi Eiko: A Delicate Balance Kondo Takahiro: Silver Mist

Celestial Ceramics

A Palette for Genius

Contemporary Clay

Eternal Partnership

Fired Earth, Woven Bamboo

Hands & Earth

Japan Now

Kondo Takahiro

Listening to Clay

Making Waves

Pure Form

The Allure of Japanese Contemporary Ceramics

The Betsy and Robert Feinberg Collection

Transcendent Clay KONDŌ

Kondō Takahiro designated as a 2024 Kyoto City Person of Cultural Merit

Kondō Takahiro featured in “Expert Eye” film series by The Winter Show

Japanese Ceramics in Blue and White

Kondo family museum exhibition opens in New York

10 x 10 Past and Present covered in Antiques and the Arts Weekly

Joan B Mirviss LTD at The Winter Show 2023

How Japan’s Best Ceramists “Listen” to Clay

Ceramics Now magazine highlights Listening to Clay

Listening to Clay exhibition and event in ArtDaily

Listening to Clay event spotlighted in Auction Daily

Listening to Clay reviewed in The Brooklyn Rail

Kondo Takahiro published in latest print edition of Gallery & Studio magazine

Kondo Takahiro's latest featured in Ceramics Now

Kondō Takahiro's "Wave" featured in Ceramics Monthly

Kondō Takahiro featured in Infoceramica

In the Year of the Tiger, Asia Week New York 2022 Roars Back

Kondō Takahiro's work on TV

Joan B Mirviss LTD opens an exhibition of works by artist Kondō Takahiro

Kondō Takahiro is ArtDaily's Best Photo of the Day

Asia Week New York's highlights: Kondō Takahiro and Bingyi

Latest exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD featured in Yomitime

Asian Art Newspaper previews Asia Week New York

Asia Week New York shows contemporary and ancient Asian art side by side

Kondō Takahiro one of the highlights of Asia Week New York preview

Asia Week New York 2022 preview in APOLLO magazine

Kondō Takahiro Artworks at Kyoto Art Culture Award Exhibition

Kondō Takahiro wins Kyoto Art Culture Award

Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art

Antiques & The Arts Weekly

Fusion: A Magazine For Clay And Glass

Joan B Mirviss LTD in ArtDaily

Waves of Ink: Painting in Porcelain

Apollo Magazine

Kondō Takahiro 近藤高弘 b. 1958