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Dai Ichi Arts is pleased to present a summer group exhibition presenting contemporary women artists working in the
ceramic medium, presenting new works by prominent and established artists alongside new rising voices in the
landscape of Japanese ceramic art.
Since the 1950s, ceramic artists in Japan have gained increasing recognition, with
many devoting themselves entirely to the medium through practices deeply rooted in craft philosophies
and the culture of shokunin—the lifelong pursuit of mastering craftsmanship. For centuries, however, the
field of ceramics in Japan remained overwhelmingly male-dominated, and women were largely excluded
from key aspects of production. Deeply ingrained Shinto beliefs surrounding ritual impurity, alongside
rigid systems of hereditary apprenticeship and succession, prohibited women from tasks such as kiln
firing, limited their participation within traditional ceramic communities, with historically celebrated
exceptions.
Meaningful change did not emerge until the post-war period. While women had historically been confined
to decorative roles, the decades following the Second World War opened new possibilities for artistic and
professional independence. Female ceramists began to challenge established conventions, moving beyond
utilitarian and decorative traditions to pioneer sculptural, abstract, and avant-garde approaches to clay.
Since then, and alongside the increasing admittance of co-ed university education in Japan during the
postwar period, generations of women artists have transformed the landscape of contemporary Japanese
ceramics, using clay as a powerful vehicle for artistic experimentation, personal expression, and critical
inquiry.
Building upon this dialogue through the current presentations of Radical Clay—a traveling U.S.
exhibition highlighting Japanese women artists working in ceramics from the celebrated Carol and Jeffrey
Horvitz Collection of contemporary Japanese ceramics—this exhibition continues and expands that
conversation. Alongside new works by artists associated with Radical Clay, the exhibition introduces
established, emerging and innovative voices whose practices are reshaping the future of contemporary
Japanese ceramics today.
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