With just over a week to go until we unveil the latest full compliment of works from Avant-Garde ceramic soothsayer, KODAI UJIIE, we pause here to give you all a very special preview only available to our valued clients.
In this update we will give you access to the digital Exhibition Companion which shows full colour images of selected works in all of his styles. Updated signature styles he has become famous for and brand new hybrid styles yet to be unleashed on the collecting world. It is also prefaced with an essay written by TSG's Howard Clegg that seeks to honour the unfathomable creativity of Ujiie.
We have also provided a link should you wish to order a hard copy for the Exhibition Companion as a souvenir of this momentous occasion, something many of you have been asking for for a while.
In addition, we preview here the key styles that will be encompassed in the collection. These 'supersized' vessels providing a canvas for Ujiie's determined and uninhibited approach to creating something both ancient and of the future.
We sincerely hope you are able to visit the exhibition (please note the exhibition is on our first floor and requires stepped access) or will be able to enjoy the incredible collection online.
Mark your diaries and set your alarms, the time is almost upon us to witness the movement of genius.
With excited best wishes to you all,
Howard, Emma & Anna
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Available to read online now, this 42 page full colour companion to the show highlights selected works that will be included in the exhibition. It is prefaced with an essay entitled 'On the metamorphic ceramics of Kodai Ujiie' written by the gallery's curator of Japanese ceramics, Howard Clegg. In addition it sets out the vessel categories with examples of each. Just click the image above to view and read.
Want a hard copy of this exhibition companion? Now you can, click the link below to order your copy online which will be printed and delivered to your door.
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Signature Styles - Updated, Deeper, Glorious! |
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Celadon Urushi
Where it all started
This is the style that launched Ujiie san's career. Subtle and ancient celadon with glaze crazing highlighted with crimson and green urushi. Note the glaze thickness and depth of urushi inlay, whilst the style may be familiar to you, the depth of expression is all new. |
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Ofuke Urushi
Tradition subverted
Under the order of the mighty 17thC Tokugawa shogunate, a kiln was built in the gardens of Nagoya Castle which birthed Ofuke wares. Blue and white under transparent glaze was a favourite and given as gifts to dignitaries. In his version, Ujiie honours the contrast but subverts the outcome. Like ink dropped into water the deep cobalt colour finds its own path flirting with crimson urushi and flashes of dark ochre oxide.
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White Porcelain Urushi
Anything but plain
The undersold name of this style is quite ironic. Whilst there are glimpses of white porcelain it is thickly adorned with organic glaze brought alive with deep inlays of dark violet and forest green. Oxide bleeding into the transparent glaze offers an accent that completes the look, and what a look!
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White Glaze Urushi
Like an ocean species newly discovered
Debuted in the last Ujiie solo show here three years ago, these softly ribbed white glaze and coloured urushi pieces became instant favourites. There is certainly something 'alive' about them, creature like, organic and wonderfully not of this world, time or space. |
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Oribe Urushi
THE style
The style that bursts with exuberant, unhindered texture and colour. A joyful riot of expressionistic investigation. If Furuta Oribe were alive today, he would approve. If Oribe is to be understood as daring to change, to prototype, to push limits of expression, then Ujiie claims the highest 21st century honours. |
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Black Karatsu
The connoisseur's choice
Positively restrained as a style compared to his library of stylistic cousins, the Black Karatsu works occupy a space of restraint and sophistication whilst still possessing hidden echoes of prehistory's mysteries. A gallery favourite. |
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Nezumi Shino Urushi
Certainly not quiet as a mouse
Nezumi (the Japanese word for 'mouse') Shino reinvented. Sure, the Shino has swathes of mouse colour but here the comparison to traditional Nezumi Shino ends. The deep red as a backdrop makes these pieces feel almost imperial, special, deliberately powerful. And, they are all those things. |
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New Hybrid Styles and Vessel types |
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Whilst not a complete preview of the works that will be made available, we have to have some surprises!, this is an important first viewing of some of the newest creations to leave the studio of this endlessly talented and adventurous artist, buckle up, it's a fabulously wild ride! |
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White Glaze Hybrid
Mizusashi (ceremonial water jar)
Here, with this stunning Mizusashi, Ujiie is further developing what his white glazed works can be. There is new weight to this style, a feeling of movement under gravity. Densely packed urushi inlays yielding to stings and drips of glaze unctuously moving towards the base. Fabulous. |
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Nezumi Shino & Oxblood Feldspar Hybrid
Chawan
The stately Nezumi Shino meets Ujiie's new Oxblood glaze in stunning fashion with this Chawan. Small chuncks of feldspar penetrating through the Oxblood and contrasting with the soft Shino, a style of opposites that is utterly arresting. |
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Black Karatsu & Oribe Hybrid
Ido Chawan
One of the most interesting hybrids in this collection, we see the comparatively shy Black Karatsu style married to (or is it being taken over by?) Ujiie's upfront Oribe. It shouldn't work, but it does! And it works really well. |
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Oribe & White Glaze Urushi Hybrid
Chawan
The metamorphic hybrids continue with this stunning Chawan. As if hewn from a distant planetary glacier, this icy celebration of colour and texture plays firmly into the desire for Ujiie to make you consider his art as a living, breathing, undiscovered organism. Just wow. |
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Kiseto, White Glaze & Oribe Hybrid
Tsubo with Twin Chawan
What happens with we anthropomorphise a ceramic vessel? We get this absolutely stunning, confusing, challenging and unknowable work. A 360 degree phenomenon. A modern Tsubo spawning its own hybrid offspring in the form of a Chawan emerging from the side of the vessel. Truly a breath stealer. |
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Black Karatsu & Oribe Ensō Hybrid
Tsubo
Here we witness a battle that might stand in for the philosophies and aesthetics of Rikyu Vs Oribe. Played out on the surface of this large and captivating Tsubo. The vocabulary is not yet invented for the emotions that a piece like this commands. When unpacked, we stared at it in silence for a very long time. It was speaking to us but in a language we did not understand. It is a very, very powerful piece. |
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'The Movement of Genius' - A Short Film |
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