Works from Ruri&Eiko Exhibition : Porcelain Paintings and Lacquer ware

 

Thank you for coming to our Ruri and Eiko's exhibition.
It was a great pleasure for us to show the works of Ruri and Eiko, who are the skillful and talented artists from Japan.
Even If you missed the show, their works are still here at Sara.
Please stop by, they are the works you must see...!

 

 

 

Collaborated work with Ruri Takeuchi and Gen Saratani.
The little bird figurine accidentally fell off.
Gen Saratani restored with his "Kintsugi" technique, the work is now reborn.

* Climbing Rose Incense Burner with Little Bird

 

TOMORROW Opening: Ruri&Eiko Exhibition "Microsccopic Craft from KAGA 2014"

 

Ruri Takeuchi & Eiko Tanaka Duo Exhibition
- Microscopic Craft from KAGA 2014 –

October 24th Fri. - 26th Sun.
Opening Reception TOMORROW 6pm-8pm

It will be our fifth year presenting the Kaga Kutani Exhibition with young artists that generate new traditional crafts. Ruri Takeuchi, the Kutaniware porcelain painting artist, and Eiko Tanaka, wood turning and lacquer artist, have returned with greater force than ever before.

Ruri Takeuchi works with new colors, and paints animals with vivid expressions on pieces she creates by hand. Eiko Tanaka turns her lacquerware pieces, producing shapes from the sensation and feeling of the immediate moment.
With the future of traditional Kaga craft at the hands of these two craftswomen, they have created new artwork imaging “the present”. It will be something worthwhile to see.

This will be the eighth in a series of event to celebrate Sara Japanese Pottery’s 25th years anniversary. Please join us for the Opening Reception on TOMORROW from 6-8pm. The exhibition will be open for three days, during which the artists, Ruri and Eiko, will be present.

* Open Hour *
October 24th, Fri.  10 am - 8 pm   Artist Reception  6pm - 8pm
October 25th, Sat. 12 pm - 6 pm
October 26th, Sun. 12 pm - 6 pm

*Their past exhibition at Sara, please click the below.
Exhibition 2010 - Next Generation of Porcelain Paintings -
Exhibition 2011 - The way of Tea Ceremony of KAGA -
Exhibition 2012 - Traditional Art and Craft from KAGA -
Ruri&Eiko Duo Exhibition 2013 - Microscopic Craft from KAGA -

  

Ruri Takeuchi is an artist who paints exquisitely fine motifs on porcelain pieces - boxes, incense holders, or small figurines.
A native of Nara prefecture, in Japan, Ruri studied at Kyoto's School of Traditional Arts and Crafts.  Upon graduation, she apprenticed under Chousa Yamamoto, a renown porcelain artist, and became entranced by traditional Kaga crafts and Kutani porcelain painting.  She would spend four years learning and developing her techniques in porcelain painting.

In 2010, Sara Japanese Pottery held a group exhibition, "KAGAKUTANI in NY 2010," where she premiered her vivid designs as an independent artist, not as a learner. "Microscopic Craft from KAGA 2014" will be Ruri's fifth time showing in New York.

“With each individual work, including the title, I condense a single universe into that piece.  The motifs are mostly inspired by nature, and I find it most satisfying when someone is able to look at my work and experience a soft breeze, hear the voice of a bird, or recreate a feeling from some story.”
-Ruri Takeuchi

Her works are as she describes them.  She encapsulates a single scene from nature into a design with lush green leaves surrounding a marten or rabbit, or an elegant expression of a bird with glamorous feathers.
Her brushstrokes, the point tapered to a single hair, paint thin and wispy lines.  It is with her steady hand and delicate brush that she draws the outline and applies the color to fill the design, and which compels her precise and beautiful craft.

On a horizontal lathe, Eiko Tanaka mounts a piece of wood.  As the lathe turns, she uses her sharpened utensils to carefully carve out a light and delicate form.  From a traditional form of artistry, her exquisite skill and confidence comes from experience and passion; she listens and reacts to the wood while shaping its surfaces.
She creates a perfect curve only by the sensation in her fingertip when her self-made tools come into contact with the quickly spinning wood.
The wood she uses, such as Black Persimmon tree, is scarce.  It is preserved for over 20 years meticulously treated and dried, waiting for the perfect moment to be handled.  Oftentimes, the apprentice will inherit this wood from their mentor - it is simultaneously a moment of burden and of great responsibility.
Eiko's refined techniques are guided by the beauty of the wood grain, which radiates from beneath the layer of lacquer.  Every work, though contemporary, is every bit intertwined with its history.

Take the piece into your hand, and you are grasping the voice of the wood.

Humorous Bronze Sculpture from Mexico : Manuel Ferreiro

We met unique bronze sculptor, Manuel Ferreiro, in this summer.
The intention of both, the piece and the brief story, is to provoke enjoyable emotions in the spectator to recall their own, and consequently to engage emotionally with the author.
By achieving to cause in the observer either admiration, interest or at least to make him or her smile, Manuel would consider his mission accomplished.

" El Humor "

" No matter how careful I am in designing and planning a project, that in a moment of distraction while executing it, I often make the kind of mistake like the one I purposely incorporated in this piece. That, which for the majority of people may be a reason for frustration or anger, for me is always a reason for amusement -I can laugh at myself with great joy. Besides, these types of errors can lead to useful discoveries and teachings: a professor used to say that a wrong design kills; although I agree, I do not think this chair would, but it could very well send someone to see the orthopedist and the psychiatrist. I would say all my pieces have a touch of humor, but El Humor (2010), is its true representation, something I think I have been looking for unconsciously for a time, because to me, it is something indispensable not only in the creative process, but in all aspects of life." -  Manuel Ferreiro

Bronze / 12 x 10 x 4 in. / 92 Oz.

 " El Enigma "

" Enigma: Saying or assortment of words of artificially concealed meaning so it is difficult to understand or interpret.- Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy. I like enigmas: the verbal and the visual… for the pleasure the decoding brings, I suppose. El Enigma (2010), is my interpretation of a very simple tridimensional one, but still, an enigma. The doors –in the enigmatic amount of three-, perhaps evoke the sense of search in the adjacent space, while the absurd arrangement they are structured in, represents the artificially concealed meaning the mentioned dictionary refers to. I quote Don Quijote: “-It seems to me, Sancho, that there is no proverb which is not truthful, because they all are sentences taken from experience itself, mother of all sciences, specially that which says: Where one door closes, another opens”" -  Manuel Ferreiro

Bronze / 10 x 8.5 x 2.5 in. / 69 Oz.

" Tandem "

" One of my passions (which is close to an obsession), are traveling bags and suitcases. On each occasion I am about to depart, either for business or pleasure, I usually assess, with a long time in advance, what needs for that specific case will I have, carefully considering the weight and volume of what I will have to pack, and quite often I have to try several of them -out of the many I can find at home-, until I reach to the most suitable option. Tándem (2013) is only a somewhat surreal and humorist occurrence related to the exciting -and sometimes difficult- adventure of travel in couples, but can also be a useful metaphor for those whom -like me- believe that the journey through life should always be shared. For this work I was inspired by the heavy and rigid suitcase (which nowadays would be considered as a retro treasure) that my family always used when I was a child, whose mere sight and smell of leather presaged me the pleasures and excitement of vacation." - Manuel Ferreiro

Bronze / 6 x 6 x 7 in. / 81 Oz.

Wide Rimmed Oval Bowl by Hanako Nakazato

With her creativity and her keen aesthetics, Hanako showed her new pieces at the exhibition we made in September.
One of her new is yellow glaze and copper combinations.
We have now Hanako's wide rimmed oval bowls in variety of colors.
Items are limited, please let us know if you are interested in.

* Turquoise, Yellow, Milky White and Matte Black
   size : W 9"1/4 x D 8"1/2 x H 2"1/2