Dan McCarthy has exhibited his work globally throughout a career that has spanned over three decades. In addition to his two-dimensional works, such as his paintings and drawings, McCarthy produces his iconic “Facepot” series, which features facial motifs on ceramic vessels, with vivid colors, tremendous expressiveness, a familiar feel to them, a sense of primitiveness, and an immediacy that evokes the hand of the artist. In McCarthy’s work, these elements merge together to create an immediate experience that is not only visual but has a physical, and even emotional, effect on the viewer. The fact that this is also part of the artist’s own intention is revealed by a statement McCarthy made regarding his duo exhibition with Takuro Kuwata in 2022, in which he said “The artwork is finished when it becomes whole and complete, the vessel becomes a shared experience, containing something for someone.”　

McCarthy’s work is incredibly open. He creates ceramic art using clay, fire, and ancient techniques, and with a keen understanding of the material. From this, one gets a feel for how he fosters his relationship with nature through his work. The lives of modern human have become far removed from the nature to which they belong, and from which they came. The artist states that he embarks on his works from his intuition, and his practice could be identified as being one that has questioned the relationship between humanity and nature, and served as an intermediary between the two.　

Born in Hawaii and raised in southern California, McCarthy’s works evoke West Coast culture and the sunlight and ocean that is dear to him. Brimming with warmth, McCarthy’s sculptures seem to be saying that it is more important to focus on our earnest feelings regarding the fact that we are living in this world, rather than making art for art’s sake.　

McCarthy provided the following statement/poem about the exhibition.

birds

on pots on canvas on wires

stretched and hand chased

in clay and oil and glaze

birdshapes pinched and drawn

french macaroon colored

birds resting here and there

outdoors as where they live

nests tree trunks flowers and faces

a birds eye view

someplace to singsong

to witness and be watched

us and them waiting

satin silver laced patches

reflected from back then to now

this freedom in birds

this effervescent flight

this whimsical take off and landing

soaring flight from tree to tree

roof to line, earth to sky

and back.

This show, McCarthy’s first solo exhibition in Japan and his second show in the country following his duo exhibition with Takuro Kuwata in 2022, presents about 25 works, including new paintings and the new “BirdPot” series. As with the previous exhibition, the exhibition space is designed by Tokyo based architect Kentaro Ishida. We cordially invite you to view these new works, which McCarthy himself describes as “breakthrough artworks.”