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).
