This May and June, the Joan B Mirviss LTD gallery on the Upper East Side is showing an exhibition of the work of Sawada Hayato, called “Giving Form to Color.” Within days of the exhibition opening, all but four of the nearly 40 pieces in the exhibition were sold.
No surprise that it was a resounding success. You don’t have to be a connoisseur to be intrigued by Sawada’s groundbreaking approach to surface decoration and the dramatic character of his tactile forms. For objects that appear to be inert, Sawada’s work exudes energy. They are so intricately constructed, with so many angles, they seem to hover in space, not exactly floating, but poised for the precise moment of taking off.
In Japan, if you wish to discover new artists, you go to a department store gallery like Takashimaya where artists tend to showcase their work. But Mirviss, a much admired expert in Japanese art and a leading dealer in modern and contemporary ceramics, makes semi-annual trips to Japan, searching for artists pushing the boundaries of ceramic art. Mirviss is well informed about Sawada’s home base, about 90 minutes north of Tokyo by train or car. Although several legendary ceramic artists have had studios in this region of Tohoku, Sawada is based in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture (Tohoku is in Miyagi Prefecture). Sawada is self-taught. He never apprenticed or studied art at university. Perhaps that gives him the freedom to be wildly experimental.
According to Mirviss, Sawada’s process for creating these works is incredibly precise and time consuming. “Sawada hand-builds his ceramic forms in clay—not on a wheel. He then uses multiple applications of a wide variety of slip-glazes, repeatedly masking and unmasking areas and only then does he incise their surfaces. He then inlays the carved areas with additional slip glazes.” One type of glaze is what Mirviss calls an “unctuous feldspar glaze.” The result is an organic, crevassed texture which may require as many as five or six firings at specifically calibrated temperatures.
The result is brilliant contrasts, deep shades of red, black, gray, and neutral—highly worked surfaces, filled with contradictions and tensions. This talented artist’s work—hand-building, glazing, and inlay—is so meticulously crafted in exuberant patterns and obsessively finished, they closely approach the geometric, lyrical, abstract paintings of Richard Diebenkorn.
The title of the Mirviss exhibition, “Giving Form to Color,” reflects Sawada’s sensitivity and explorations in both categories. As Sawada writes on the Mirviss website “The philosophy at the core of my ceramics is storytelling. The vessels that emerge from there spring forth from that seed…I invite you to experience the textures and colors that can only be achieved in fired clay.”
Greatly admired in Japan, at just 47 years old, Sawada has won consecutive prizes at both the Japan Kogei Association and the 5th Kikuchi Biennale, among others. G&S
For an on-line catalog of the entire Sawada show, please go to mirviss.com. For more formation: 39 East 78th Street, Suite 401, NY 10075, 212-799.4021
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