Four years in the making and waiting, we are thrilled to annouce the dates for Yoca Muta's first international solo show here at The Stratford Gallery.
Yoca Muta has become one of Japan's most desired artists of any discilpine in recent years with an international collector base that is always keen to try and add the first or one more piece to their collections. In this exhibtion her mastery of the traditional decoration of ceramic forms with overglaze enamels, Kutaniyaki, will be showcased in her first solo exhibition outside of Japan. With even the smallest of her forms taking several weeks to decorate, her work is rarely available and this exhibition even rarer for the volume of works that will be exhibited. This solo exhibtion will be an unrivalled opportunity for collectors and those new to her work alike.
Exhibition Timeline:
Friday 11th August 2023, 7pm BST: Exhibition goes live on our website to view and purchase
Saturday 12th August 2023: Private View Opening - Invitation Only. Now at capacity.
Sunday 13th August 2023, 11am - 4pm: General viewing of the exhibition begins. Exhibition runs until 23rd August 2023 inclusive.
Exhibition Statement from Yoca Muta
"The theme within my ceramic work is the contemporary relationship between the natural world and human beings.
The animals and plants depicted in my works are classical motifs from the decorative arts in East Asian culture such as ceramics, hanging scrolls and the paintings on sliding doors and screens that are often seen in shrines and temples. I take them as images that have emerged over many centuries as a reflection on the relationship between humans and nature. In my practice I am making an additional reflection of such motifs giving them an immediate contemporary context. For example, the transition between the dragon, which was worshipped as a water god since ancient times, and the image of the dragon as it appears in contemporary fiction such as film and game culture. The dragons I depict are a mixture of real-life creatures like lizards with reference to classical iconography, but also have an inorganic quality that appears in contemporary fantasy.
The material is porcelain and based on the traditional techniques of Kutani-yaki that is a ceramic art from Ishikawa, Japan. I mix this with contemporary expressions of ceramic form and my original techniques. Kutaniyaki is one of Japan's traditional painted ceramics, but unlike the classical, delicate and precise Imari and Kyo-yaki, its techniques are varied and its designs are diverse. Especially true of the typical old Kutani impressions characterised by bold, generous brushwork and a painterly colour scheme. Its important to me that historically the craft of Kutani-yaki was born as an art form rather than being lead by vessel function. Therefore I believe it is an appropriate medium as a motif to express the gap between idea of Japanese craft and Western art.
In my work, my aim is not simply to create painted vessels, but for the expression of the painting to exist as an integral part of the vessel, a three-dimensional object with its own use and space.
The vessels are not to be seen as applied art but as a contemporary reconstructions of the wide range of ways of creating Japanese art which had atrophied with the importation of Western art concepts in the Meiji period. This was when Japan truly opened its doors to the rest of the world and modernised by adopting the cultures of other countries, especially the West. It can also be said to be a comparison based on the perspective of contemporary art that has developed mainly in the West. My experience of contemporary art education in the United Kingdom plays an important role in this.
As for painting, I draw heavily on the brushstrokes and motifs in reference of Edo period artists such as Katsushika Hokusai, Jakuchu Ito, Shohaku Soga and others. Jakuchu is said to have followed the divinity of plants and animals, while Hokusai sought the truth of all things. In my work, I see such things as existing only in the collective consciousness of the artist, the spectators, and as containing human desires, wishes, karma and preciousness, which change form with the times and I depict them in my iconography.
It is a dramatic emptiness; nature as a private expression."
Yoca Muta, August 2023.
