Hayashi Kaku | ETERNAL CURRENTS: Her first solo exhibition outside Japan

Eternal Currents marks the first solo exhibition outside Japan for highly respected and influential ceramic artist Hayashi Kaku. After decades of exploring clay's malleability, Hayashi has created confidently formed sculptures covered in strongly contrasting glazes that express the elemental force of Nature. Her latest dynamic series, created exclusively for this exhibition, draw inspiration from the majestic and spiritually significant Kegon waterfall in Nikko that has been celebrated by Japanese artists since antiquity. Located near her home and studio in Tochigi Prefecture, the waterfall and surrounding landscape have long been a source of inspiration for her artistic practice. More recently, she has imbued these works with a renewed vigor despite the isolation and uncertainty of the past few years. Through expressive clay sculptures, Hayashi Kaku explores both the variable and immovable forces ever-present in Nature in her powerful international debut at Joan B Mirviss LTD.

HAYASHI Kaku (b. 1953) investigates the very essence of clay by challenging its flexibility and forcing it to conform to her direction in a time-consuming, physically demanding, hand-building process. Some of her works appear as deceptively simple slabs until their dynamic complexity is quickly revealed. Curving or undulating standing sculptures are accentuated by her distinctive carved linear patterning that evoke wind and water. These alternating striations ripple along the surfaces and are highlighted by gradations of iron-red or turquoise and yellow glazes. She finishes her surface decoration with abstract painterly designs, often in metallic glazes, that convey an overall liveliness that complements the form. About this exhibition, Hayashi Kaku says:

A graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts, Hayashi Kaku was a student under Living National Treasures Fujimoto Yoshimichi Nōdō (1919-1992) and Tamura Kōichi (1918-1987). For decades she was a professor at Bunsei University of Art in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, where she developed their ceramics program from its inception; now she serves as Professor Emerita. Recognized in Japan with notable awards and exhibitions throughout her long career, Hayashi is not only a visionary artist but also an intrepid ceramic researcher. During her professorship, her research team discovered a novel firing technique that was later patented—an unusual distinction for an arts university.

A crowning achievement for the artist was a commission for a large, multi-paneled, wall installation at the newly renovated Mibu City Hall in Tochigi Prefecture, which was finally unveiled in 2022. Her work has been exhibited in major international exhibitions such as Soaring Voices – Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists (2007-12), which traveled to museums worldwide; and New Forms, New Voices: Japanese Ceramics from the Gitter-Yelen Collection, which was exhibited at the New Orleans Museum of Art (2017-18). Opening next year at the Art Institute of Chicago, a Japanese women clay artists exhibition will travel to museums across the US and will feature her work.

Hayashi Kaku's work can be found in the collections of many museums worldwide, including: Hubei Institute of Fine Arts, China; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga, Japan; and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA.