First Period：November 22 (fri) – December 7 (sat)
Second Period：December 11 (wed) – December 28 (sat)
*Please note that the gallery space will be closed for the upcoming Talk Event on December 21st (sat).
Tokyo Gallery + BTAP is pleased to announce the exhibition “From Erasure to Rebirth” by Takahiro Kondo, opening Friday, November 22.
Takahiro Kondo was born in Kyoto in 1958. 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 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 Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland as an overseas trainee artist dispatched by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. Recent major exhibitions include “Porcelains in the Mist: The Kondō Family of Ceramicists,” a four-person exhibition with his grandfather Yuzo Kondo, father Hiroshi Kondo, and uncle Yutaka Kondo, held at the Brooklyn Museum in 2023-2024.
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 patented 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. His “Reduction” and “Wave” series, which were created on the theme of water, are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Guimet Museum, and many other prominent institutions. In June of this year, a noborigama (climbing kiln) named "Nennendo Rokuryu Kiln" was established on the site of the former Yamasu Elementary School in Hanase, Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City.
This exhibition will be divided into two parts, each featuring the white porcelain that Kondo has made his life’s work. The first half is a continuation of the experiment that began with his 2018 two-man exhibition with the late composer Toshi Ichiyanagi entitled “Erasure.” The exhibition will explore the opportunity for rebirth that is still contained within vessels that have lost their form and crumbled, foreshadowing their “erasure.” The second half will showcase an experimental installation using white porcelain. It will reexamine the boundary between crafts and contemporary art, focusing on the theme of the interaction between nature, which is constantly leaning towards erasure, and humans, who continue to create and aim for rebirth.
A reception with the artist will be held on Friday, November 22, from 4:00 pm. We look forward to your visit.
