Desert Bloom: Form and Motion in Clay: The Ceramic Sculpture of Fujino Sachiko

Having found a sophisticated, culturally rich and diverse audience in the Southwest following two successful years exhibiting at SOFA WEST, Joan B Mirviss LTD is pleased to announce a new collaboration with TAI Gallery in Santa Fe. Installed in their beautifully expanded gallery spaces this August, this inaugural exhibition will include ceramic sculptures and dynamic functional work from the vanguard of Japanese clay. In addition to presenting a selection of striking and important works just acquired in Japan, we will feature a solo exhibition of new clay sculptures by FUJINO Sachkio. Entitled Desert Bloom: Form and Motion in Clay - The Ceramic Sculpture of Fujino Sachiko, this show will be her first solo exhibition outside of Japan.

DESERT BLOOM: FORM AND MOTION IN CLAY
THE CERAMIC SCULPTURE OF FUJINO SACHIKO

FUJINO Sachiko (b. 1950) is an artist whose aesthetic balances the delicate natures of her medium with a strong and organic sense of design. While initially interested in geometric shapes, Fujino has dramatically changed course with her more recent, white blossom-like forms with overlapping petals. Her sculptures occasionally include a subtly textured application of color to the surfaces. She uses a special airbrush device that sprays slip or glaze, enabling her to control the intensity of her color. Through clay, she conveys emotional content by creating non-functional sculptures that are simultaneously sensuous, biomorphic and powerful. Fujino's sculptures are created, in the artist's words, "through a dialogue with the soft clay." She states:
Conscious of both the suppleness and the fragility of the clay, I attempt to create forms which possess an inner power of conviction. I would like to aprroach the clay in such a way that my pieces are expressions of profound thoughts and feelings.
-Soaring Voices - Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists; The Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Japan, 2007, pp. 34-35.

Fujino began her career in textiles and as a fashion designer after graduating from design school in Kyoto. She developed an interest in ceramics after taking a pottery class in the early 1980s, which led her to enroll in a college program to study under the gifted and pioneering woman artist, ASUKA Tsuboi (b. 1929).

Several of Fujino's works are represented in the renowned travelling exhibition "Soaring Voices: Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists" that concludes its four-year international tour this autumn at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center in Hawaii. Her work can also be found in many museums in Japan as well as in the West, includeing the Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, Hanford, CA; Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, Italy; Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fl; and Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT.

Works by additional artists to be shown include: AKIYAMA Yo (b. 1953), FUKUMOTO Fuku (b. 1973), KISHIMOTO Kennin (b. 1934), KITAMURA Junko (b. 1956), MIYASHITA Zenji (1939-2012), MORINO Taimei Hiroaki (b. 1934), OGATA Kamio (B. 1949), SUZUKI Osamu (1926-2001) and WADA Morihiro (1944-2008), among others.

Joan B Mirviss LTD
at TAI Gallery
1601 B Paseo de Peralta
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-984-1384

Gallery Hours:
August 3- September 29
Monday through Saturday 11:00 - 5:00

For visuals or further information, please contact Bess Sobota at 212-799-4021 or bess@mirviss.com