Koike Shoko: Beyond the Sea

Joan B. Mirviss LTD is delighted to present our second major solo exhibition of the Japanese female artist KOIKE SHŌKO (b. 1943). Titled Beyond the Sea, the show features over 25 recently created sculptural shell forms that was first shown at Salon: Art + Design (November 14-18) and is now at Joan B. Mirviss LTD (November 22-December 13).

Like many Japanese artists KOIKE SHŌKO has drawn from nature as her primary source of inspiration, and for this body of work has returned to her theme of underwater sea mollusks. Heavily influenced by the ocean, Koike produces works that embody not only its grace and beauty, but also its dynamic power. The spiked, zigzagged, and ridged shell exterior surfaces are formed with layers of Shigaraki clay that are hand-folded, pinched and crimped, before being scratched to reveal hints of color and texture. They are then wrapped with multiple applications of creamy white and deep brown iron oxide glazes that surround the sensuous, gaping mouths into which the interiors have been covered in thick turquoise glaze. Koike then often highlights the outside edges with streaks of metallic or lavender glaze, ultimately creating works that appear to be moving and buoyant while at the same time firmly grounded to realm of the sea.
As one of the first female graduates from the prestigious ceramics department of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Koike Shōko is among very few women ceramists of her generation to be self- supporting as a studio-artist. In so doing, she has become one of the most recognized female ceramists in Japan with works in important museum collections throughout the world, including the Cleveland Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and Victoria & Albert Museum. Several years ago, Koike was awarded the highly important Japan Ceramic Society Prize and she has been featured in two Japanese public television shows devoted solely to her work.

Click to visit The Salon website.