- T.S. Eliot

As the scope and magnitude of the earthquake-tsunami devastation in Japan unfold, we give our condolences to the untold numbers of people affected by this unprecedented tragedy. Our hearts are with them. Our featured artist, award-winning ceramist Yukiya Izumita, lives in the devastated Iwate prefecture. To our relief, he is safe; but there are widespread destruction and suffering in the surrounding areas.

Touching Stone Gallery dedicates Izumita's show 'Still Point' to help Japan earthquake-tsunami reliefs. 50% of the gallery proceeds from this show have been donated to organizations directly involved in disaster reliefs. We thank all our clients for their support of the show and generous contributions to the relief effects.

As if to offer a premonition of the impending disaster, several showpieces entitled "Dune Waves" were damaged in transit from Japan. These works have been fully restored to their pristine original conditions by a museum conservator (Marked as "Restored", full documentations available). They serve as fitting testaments for the occasion.

Yukiya Izumita   泉田之也

The first impression of Yukiya Izumita's work is often one of amazement. One seldom expects to see clay honed to razor-thin edges, torn apart, twisted at impossible angles like giant origami, to create shapes that exude quiet beauty and tension, forms that appear unpolished and at the same time complete. Great technical expertise is required to create such work, which stands out even among the most creative contemporary Japanese ceramics.

Izumita (b. 1966) grew up in Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan in an area with high mountains, deep forests and beautiful sea shores. After college, he worked for three years in Tokyo but decided that the populous metropolis was not for him. In 1992, he followed his true calling and returned north to take up an apprenticeship in pottery making under Kokuji-yaki master Gakuho Simodake. In 1995, Izumita established his own kiln in Noda-mura in Iwate Prefecture. In the same year, his innovative work won an Excellence Award in the Nittshin Menbachi Grand Prize Exhibition, the first of a series of prestigious honors which include two Grand Prizes in the 2000 and 2002 Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibitions, and an Excellence Award in the prestigious Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition in 2009.

Beyond the innovative forms and technical brilliance, Izumita's creations are meant to convey deeper meanings. As an artist, Izumita feels a strong connection to nature, especially to the muted colors and roughness of earth in his surroundings. He has a keen sense of the changing seasons, the passage of time, erosion and decay that give texture and character to everything. Izumita has nurtured a strong emotional resonance to the beauty around him, and he wants to share his feelings with others through his ceramic work.

To capture the raw power and beauty of earth, Izumita uses clay from his area, and blends in sand and stones to create a unique clay body with the right combination of resilience and texture. He keeps his forms simple, with purposeful lines and surfaces to convey his visions. He uses both a gas kiln and a wood-fueled kiln for different effects. Glazes are used only to complement his visions, with warm-toned glazes to enhance earthy textures, and cold-toned glazes to evoke water.

The most important element in Izumita's work is hard to define physically: Passage of time is often implicit in each piece, whether it suggests deeply fissured boulders, a dried up and cracked stream bed, or jagged layers of erosion-exposed bedrocks. Like a fulcrum of time teetering between past and future, his creations speak silently of a personal dialog with nature. The conversation is so sensitive and eloquent, one cannot help but hear its echo and feel the artist's emotion, and be moved by it.