Shinichi Sawada: Agents of Clay

Shinichi Sawada: Agents of Clay is the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. For more than two decades, Sawada – who is based in Japan’s Shiga Prefecture – has produced a mesmerizing variety of alluring ceramic figures. Sawada’s creatures are singular and inventive, existing somewhere between the natural world and the artist’s imagination. The surfaces are significantly worked, with repeated linear patterns, horns, scales, teeth, bumps, protrusions and often multiple faces and eyes. These hybrid animals, insects, birds and dragons have presence and personality far beyond their modest scale.

The sculptures are made in centuries-old Japanese tradition, fired in single-chamber anagama kilns – also known as cave kilns – fueled by wood fires that are stoked for days at a time. As elemental vapors circulate through the kiln and settle on the sculpture’s surfaces, they create finishes that range from russet red, orange and umber to ashy white and deep, velvety black.

This exhibition brings together a selection of works that Sawada made between 2004 and 2021. They have been produced with support from Nakayoshi Fukushikai Welfare Association, which offers social and developmental support to a range of neurodivergent and disabled individuals. Sawada, who has nonspeaking autism, has been making ceramics since 2000, prolifically creating objects in series and revisiting certain characters and forms again and again. Their infinite variances underscore Sawada’s artistic breadth, originality and creativity.