Touch Fire: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics by Women Artists

"Touch Fire is composed of over 90 vibrant and dynamic ceramic sculptures by leading contemporary Japanese women artists working within and transforming a medium traditionally associated with men. Although women have played a central role in ceramic production in Japan for centuries, they have worked as studio ceramic artists only since the 1950s. Rather than training in the traditionally male-dominated apprentice system, most attended art school, where they were exposed to and influenced by a wide range of contemporary artistic movements in both Japan and the West. Works in the exhibition are lent by an alumna of Smith College who is one of the pioneer collectors of contemporary Japanese ceramics in the West. The accompanying catalogue, with an essay by ceramics specialist Todate Kazuko, Chief Curator at the Tsukuba Art Museum (Ibaraki, Japan) and artists' biographies by Wahei Aoyama, provides the first in-depth study of the phenomenal rise of women ceramic artists in Japan. The exhibition is generously supported by the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne, the Freeman Foundation, and the Brown Foundation, Inc. of Houston. Additional support is provided, in part, by the Tryon Associates and the Maxine Weil Kunstadter, class of 1924, Fund. " - Smith College Museum of Art