The most highly anticipated exhibition at Joan B Mirviss LTD in years is finally opening this September with new sculptures by the extraordinary artist Fujikasa Satoko. Titled TEMPEST, this show marks her third solo outing in New York and the first since 2019. After an agonizing four-year wait, both collectors and curators now have the opportunity to encounter the latest creations by this youthful talent from Japan whose career is only just getting started. The inspiration for this body of work comes from the stormy seas and restless clouds that have characterized the atmosphere of the past few years. While also facing down personal headwinds, Fujikasa has felt at times unmoored from her artistic practice that had been anchored in themes involving growth, flowing water, and light. Her latest exploration of the wilder side of climatic phenomena has resulted in powerful sculptures that reveal a new dimension to her dynamic artistry.

Since her previous solo exhibition, like everyone else, the artist had to reckon with the sudden changeability of her situation, one made even more unpredictable following the birth of her first child:

Evocative of billowing clouds or crashing waves or just pure movement, Fujikasa Satoko's gravity-defying sculptures are firmly within the realm of not only contemporary clay sculpture but of international contemporary art. Her strongly gestural work has rendered the distinction between craft and fine art unnecessary, even obsolete, and has defied further categorization by extending beyond the geographical identity of its creator.

Fujikasa Satoko is certainly rooted in Japan's long ceramic history, and the rising curls and tendrils of her sculptures, conjuring both wind and sea, are drawn from a deep connection between Japan and nature. Over the last few years, she has focused primarily on the modelling and construction of form while still drawing upon all the techniques she learned through her extensive tōgei (Japanese ceramics) training. What has resulted are clay sculptures created with both a boundless freedom and astonishing technical skill. Shaped from the highly desirable, coarse and pliable clay of Shigaraki, Fujikasa's sculptures are all meticulously coil-built. The tapering thinness of the walls of each sculpture must be sufficiently sturdy to bear the weight of the ascending form. Furthermore, the significant scale of her largest works necessitates impeccably controlled drying time, which is the most difficult aspect of her process. Her ambitious forms finally materialize as multi-dimensional sculpture only after many months of painstaking patience and labor.

ABOUT JOAN B MIRVISS LTD

With more than forty-five years of experience, Joan B. Mirviss remains a pillar in the field of Japanese art. As a dealer, scholar, curator, and advisor, she has been the driving force championing the top Japanese clay artists, who she represents exclusively, and whose works she has placed in major museums around the globe. Widely published as a highly respected expert, Mirviss has built many institutional and private collections of Japanese art. JOAN B MIRVISS LTD exhibits modern and contemporary Japanese ceramics, ukiyo-e, and Japanese paintings in a Madison Avenue gallery in New York City. For more information, please contact us at 212-799-4021 or director@mirviss.com.