Takuro Kuwata is a Japanese ceramicist known for his exuberant and highly decorative pots, bowls, and cups.
Read MoreKuwata graduated from Kyoto Saga Art College in 2001. In 2002, he began an apprenticeship with master potter Susumu Zaima, while also studying for five years at Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center, where he began to learn about crafting utensils for the traditional tea ceremony.
Takuro Kuwato's ceramics are often playfully distorted and non-functional. They therefore can be seen as joyful Pop sculptures, comprising an unusual mixture of tradition married to innovation.
Besides emphasising properties of colour, metallic sheen, and rhythmic texture or ornament, Kuwata is enthusiastic about discovering the individual properties of firing and left cracked clay, or filling in cracks in the tradition of Kintsugi.
Kuwata lives in Toki City, Gifu, where ancient feudal ceramic techniques are still nurtured but where he can also radically experiment with new disrupted forms that affect the viewer emotionally.
Kuwata's interest in ornamentation and often metallic colour can be seen in Tea Bowl (2013), Tea Bowl (2015), Untitled (2012), Bowl with Elongated Body (2013), and Untitled (2020).
Embracing the perfectly imperfect in the vein of wabi-sabi, Kuwata has also made non-functional sculpture, such as Yellow-Green Slipped Platinum Kairagi Shino Bowl (2013), Red Slipped Gold Kairagi Shino Bowl (2013), Gold Kairangi Shino Drips (2011), Sweating Momoko with Make-up (2014), and Doro doro (Melt Down) (2014).
Other works employ kintsugi or feature incongruously inserted stones, as seen in Untitled (2015), Tea Bowl (2021), Untitled (2021), and Untitled (2013).
Kuwata has received multiple awards, including the LOEWE Craft Prize Special Mention (2018); the Encouragement Prize from the 26th Asahi Modern Craft Exhibition (2008); the MINO Award from the 8th International Ceramics Competition MINO (2008); the Silver Prize from Oribe Craft Design Competition (2007); the Grand Prize, Hamada Shouji Award from the 6th International Mashiko Ceramics Competition (2006).
Takuro Kuwata has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include Zungurimukurri (Rolypoly), Salon 94, 87th St, New York (2021); TEE BOWL, Kosaku Kanechika, Tokyo (2021); CUP, Kakiden Gallery, Tokyo (2020); Hi Tea Bowl, I'm in Paris, Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels (2020); Today, Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels (2019); From Tea Bowl, Alison Jacques, London (2016); Dear Tea Bowl, Salon 94, Freemans, New York (2015); and Flavour of Nature, Salon 94, Bowery, New York (2013).
Group exhibitions include The Flames: The Age of Ceramics, Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris (2021); Cracked, Tristan Hoare, London (2021); CHATO, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum, Ibaraki, Japan (2021); Comfort Zone, Friedman Benda, New York (2020); Classical Revivial and Modern Japanese Ceramics, POLA Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan (2020); Japan Highlights, Pierre Marie Giraud, Brussels (2018); Art Crafting Towards the Future, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan (2012); and Paul Clay, Salon 94, Bowery, New York (2011).
Takuro Kuwata's work is collected by several major institutions across the world, including Rubell Family Collection, Miami; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; The Palm Springs Art Museum; Boca Raton Museum of Art; Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles; and Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art, Kanazawa.
Kuwata's website can be found here, and his Instagram can be found here.
John Hurrell | Ocula | 2021
