Takahiro Kondo近藤高弘
Takahiro Kondo was born in 1958 in Kyoto. He has a unique background being raised by his grandfather, Yuzo Kondo, recognized as a Living National Treasure in the craft of sometsuke ceramic decoration, and his father and ceramic artist, Hiroshi Kondo, and becoming part of the Japanese national team as a table tennis player. He began pursuing ceramics at the age of 25, received the Kyoto City Art Newcomer Award in 1994, and completed a master’s course at Edindburgh College of Art, Scotland.
Kondo began his career creating traditional sometsuke works, but later introduced new media such as metal and cast glass, establishing a unique form of artistic expression. In 1993, he created his original and patended technique Silver Mist (gintekisai), in which a mixture of platinum, gold, silver, and glass is crystallized in granular form on ceramic. This technique, which gives porcelain a delicate shimmer and varied appearances due to the drops on the surfaces, is based on the concept of creating water from fire, using clay as its medium.
Major solo exhibitions include Thoughts on Hands (2017, Kahitsukan, Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art), Seisui: Vessel Shifting (2016, Setouchi City Museum of Art), Self Portrait (2010, The Museum of Arts and Crafts, Itami), Metamorphose (2007, Kyoto Art Center / Nariwa-cho Museum / Paramita Museum), Takahiro Kondo: New Blue & White (1995, National Museum of Scotland). His work is represented in numerous institutional collections, including Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA; São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil; Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh; Guimet Museum, Paris, France, among others.
