Yoko Terai ceramic show

Yoko Terai
*Elusive Beauty III*
Exhibition Nov. 23 - Dec. 29, 2007


Yoko Terai 寺井　陽子 Touching Stone Gallery is privileged to host an exhibition of new work by Japanese ceramic artist Yoko Terai, noted for her graceful, sensitive, and highly original forms that have gained critical acclaims. Yoko Terai (b. 1972), considered one of the brightest talents among young contemporary Japanese ceramic artists, received her fine art degree from the Department of Ceramic of the Kyoto City University of Arts, where renowned ceramic artist Osamu Suzuki once taught. Inspired by Suzuki's ground-breaking work, Terai devoted herself to finding her personal style. Her graduation work received the Mayor of Kyoto Prize, an honor claimed by few artists of her age. After graduating in 1995, Terai sought apprenticeship under ceramist Nobuo Nojima in Uji City. Her mentor quickly recognized her talents and potential, and encouraged the young artist to pursue an independent career as a full-time artist. Terai is fascinated by seeing beauty in things ordinary, a gift she inherited from her artist mother and architect father. She has an uncommon ability to capture such beauty with grace and sensitivity, and allow her audience to share her vision. She approaches ceramic from an artist’s angle, using clay as a means to turn her aesthetic visions into forms. Her approach is thus quite different from many other Japanese ceramists who build careers along traditional pottery styles. Not having to conform to traditions gives her complete freedom to explore and create a uniquely personal style. Shunning the traditional potter’s wheel, Terai starts every project by drawing conceptual designs, and builds each piece by hands. Functionality seems incidental in her work, even though many of her pieces can serve beautifully as vases, platters, etc. When she is satisfied with the general designs, she just set her hands free to mold the curves and surfaces into their final forms as if guided by instinct. The results are organic shapes with graceful curves that seem to flow delicately between positive and negative spaces, revealing the pure essence of forms as one’s eyes follow the lines. Her flowing forms are often simply decorated with shades of monochromatic tones, achieved by applying a thin glaze made from titanium oxide crystals. Overall, the gentle delicate forms, smooth texture and airy hues evoke a noble, unmistakably feminine sensuous feel. Since 1997, Terai has exhibited extensively, receiving many awards. Her work was first shown in America in Touching Stone Gallery in 2004 and again in 2005. Recently, Terai introduces a stunning blue finish, a color - as she explains - evoked by the sound of hand claps in her flamenco dance practices. As if that is not surprising enough, Terai is also experimenting with new forms inspired by woodworking hand tools. She likes to visit a museum in Kobe which houses a large collection of old Japanese woodworking tools. It takes an extraordinary eye to see beauty in the well-worn shapes of iron saws, chisels and knife blades. In a recent visit, she shows off a small iron adze she keeps not for use, just for the joy of looking at it. Her new work includes a unique collection of ceramic forms which brilliantly capture the beautiful lines and textures of those tools. Setting off the shapes by judicial use of a vibrant blue glaze, she turns seemingly mundane objects into unexpected and beautiful works of art. Part of the joy of viewing Terai's exhibitions is to see the interplay between individual showpieces and their harmonious relation with the surroundings. The current show is a perfect case in point. Despite the remarkably diverse forms, colors and textures, the showpieces somehow work together to bring out an exquisite feeling of balance and grace, a quiet testament of the extraordinary gift of this artist. d


Ceramic Form #1 16.5"h x 12" x 8.5" (4 views) Sold

Ceramic Form #2 11.5"h x 12" x 8.5" (4 views)

Ceramic Form #7 11"h x 12" x 5" (4 views)

Ceramic Form #4 14.5"h x 5.5" x 5.5" (2 views) Sold			Ceramic Form #5 9.5"h x 4" x 4" (2 views)

Ceramic Form #6 6"h x 10" x 8" (2 views) Sold

Ceramic Form #8 9.5"h x 6" x 5.5" (2 views) Sold	Ceramic Form #9 14.5"h x 4" x 2.5" (2 views) Sold				Ceramic Form #10 12.5"h x 6" x 4" (2 views) Sold

Left: Ceramic form #11 19.5" x 3.5" x 3.5" Sold Right: Ceramic form #12 18.5" x 4" x 3" Sold			Top: Ceramic form #13 10" x 5.5" x 4" Sold Bottom: Ceramic form #3 13" x 4.5" x 4" Sold

Ceramic Hanging Vase Forms #14 & #15 23" x 1" x 1"; 22" x 1" x 1" (Inset: Details)			Ceramic Hanging Vase Forms #16 Sold & #17 Sold 16.5" x 1" x 1"; 24" x 1" x 1" (Inset: Details)

Ceramic Hanging Vase Forms #18 & #19 15.5" x 2" x 1.5"; 11" x 7" x 1.5" (Inset: Back view) #19 Sold			*2- pc* Ceramic Hanging Vase Set #20 17.5" x variable width Sold

Ceramic Form #21 9" x 7" x 2"h (Top & bottom views) Sold

Ceramic Form #22 6"h x 7.5" x 7" (2 views) Sold			Ceramic Form #23 7"h x 5" x 4.5" (2 views) Sold

Ceramic Form #24 8.5"h x 4" x 4" Sold		Ceramic Forms #25, #24 (Back view) Both Sold		Ceramic Form #25 7"h x 4" x 4" Sold

Top: Ceramic Form #30 (9" x 2.5") (2 views) Bottom: Ceramic Form #29 (7.5" x 2.5") (2 views) Sold

Ceramic Form #31 13.5" x 2.5" (2 views)

Ceramic Forms #32 Sold #33 Sold 6" x 3.5"; 5" x 2.5" (2 views)

Ceramic Form #34 13" x 4.5" Sold			Ceramic Form #35 15" x 4"

Ceramic Forms #36/27 (2- pc set) 9.5" x 6"; 6.5" x 1"

Ceramic Ceramic Forms #37/26 (2-pc set) 9" x 6"; 5.5" x 1.5" Sold			2-pc Ceramic Forms #38/28 (2-pc set) 9" x 5.5"; 5.5" x 1" Sold


Yoko Terai's exhibition in Touching Stone Gallery, Santa Fe. Yes, it's snowing here!

Chronology

1972 Born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

1995 Graduated from the Department of Ceramic, Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan

Exhibitions

1997 Solo show, Gallery Beni, Kyoto, Japan

1998 Group show, Gallery Nishikawa, Kyoto, Japan

1999 Solo show, Tor Gallery, Kobe, Japan

Group show, Kintetsu Department store, Osaka, Japan

Group show, Gallery Mitsuhashi, Kyoto, Japan

2000 Solo show, Gallery Utsuwa-kan, Kyoto, Japan

Group show, Gallery Hanjun Plaza, Soel, Korea

2001 Solo show, Tor Gallery, Kobe, Japan

Solo show, Hankyu Department Store, Kobe, Japan

2002 Solo show, Gallery Ceramika, Tokyo/Sapporo, Japan

Solo show, Gallery Utsuwa-kan, Kyoto, Japan

Solo show, Gallery Yamaki Bijyutsu, Osaka, Japan

2003 Group show, Meitetsu Department Store, Nagoya, Japan

Group show, Gion Konishi, Kyoto, Japan

Solo show, Hankyu Department Store, Osaka, Japan

Group show, Gallery Hanare, Hyogo, Japan

2004 Solo show, Gallery Utsuwa-kan, Kyoto, Japan

Solo show, Gallery Kukansha Shirako, Tokyo, Japan

Solo show, Gallery Yamaki Bijyutsu, Osaka, Japan

Solo show, Touching Stone Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

2005 Solo show, Savoir Vivre, Tokyo, Japan

Solo show, Touching Stone Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

2006 Solo show, Yuyusha Gallery, Kariya, Japan

Solo show, Gallery Utsuwa-kan, Kyoto, Japan

Solo show, Yamaki Bijyutsu, Osaka, Japan

2007 Solo show, Gallery Tiptoe, Takarazuka, Japan

Solo show, Robaya, Niigata, Japan

Solo show, Savoir Vivre, Tokyo, Japan

Solo show, Seaside Gallery Kuu, Fukuoka, Japan

Solo show, Touching Stone Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Awards

1994 Selected for the Second Men-Bachi Grand Prize

1995 Mayor of Kyoto Prize

Excellence Award, the Second Hana-no Sumika Grand Prize

1996 Selected for the Seventh Itami Craft Exhibition

1997 Selected for the Fourth Kyoto Craft Exhibition

1998 Selected for the 1998 International Craft Exhibition, Itami

Miura Prize, the Fourth Sake Cup Exhibition

1999 Selected for the 1999 Craft National, Sapporo

2001 Selected for the 19th Asahi Modern Craft Exhibition

Selected for the 2001 World Craft Competition, Kanazawa

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