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Touching Stone Gallery  Santa Fe  New Mexico USA

www.touchingstone.com  Email: director@touchingstone.com

 


Yukiya Izumita
Still Point
July 2 - August 4, 2010

More on this artist:2009 show, 2010 show, 2011 show, 2012 show, 2013 show
See article on this artist (Ceramics: Art & Perception, v.91, p.80-83, 2013)

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.

 

Click on images to view selected pieces

Inquiry/order: director@touchingstone.com, see Inquiry/Order

 

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
and time future contained in time past

- T.S. Eliot

  Izumita-Form1c.jpg (177021 bytes)Izumita-Form1a.jpg (188397 bytes)Izumita-Form1b.jpg (201778 bytes)

Form No.1
wood-fired ceramic vase  10.5" x 3.5" x 8.5"h  (3 views)
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Izumita-Form2a.jpg (96910 bytes)Izumita-Form2b.jpg (71911 bytes)

Form No.2  "Convergence"
wood-fired ceramic vase  13" x 11" x 4"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form3d.jpg (193452 bytes)Izumita-Form3a.jpg (193752 bytes)

Form No.3  "Still Point"
wood-fired ceramic vase  25" x 15" x 9"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form4a.jpg (224989 bytes)Izumita-Form4d.jpg (211219 bytes)

Form No.4
wood-fired ceramic vase  11" x 4" x 11"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form5a.jpg (270947 bytes)Izumita-Form5c.jpg (257851 bytes)

Form No. 5
wood-fired ceramic box with cover  11" x 3.5" x 10"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form6c.jpg (157275 bytes)Izumita-Form6b.jpg (155990 bytes)

Form No. 6
wood-fired ceramic box w/ cover   5" x 5" x 12.5"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form7c.jpg (120795 bytes)Izumita-Form7a.jpg (100481 bytes)

Form No.7  "Ravine"
wood-fired ceramic  24.5" x 8" x 6"  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form8a.jpg (217180 bytes)Izumita-Form8b.jpg (207284 bytes)

Form No.8
Ceramic vase  10.5" x 3" x 10.5"  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form9a.jpg (264564 bytes)Izumita-Form9b.jpg (236518 bytes)

Form No.9
Ceramic vase  12.5" x 3.5" x 11"  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form10a.jpg (189602 bytes)Izumita-Form10b.jpg (200742 bytes)
Form No.10
Ceramic vase  12.5" x 3.5" x 8"  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form11b.jpg (145583 bytes)Izumita-Form11a.jpg (149859 bytes)Izumita-Form11c.jpg (142386 bytes)
Form No.11
Ceramic vase  8" x 8" x 5"(h)  (3 views)

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Izumita-Form12c.jpg (165753 bytes)Izumita-Form12b.jpg (150928 bytes)Izumita-Form12d.jpg (157823 bytes)
Form No.12
Ceramic vase  8.5" x 8" x 7"(h)  (3 views)

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Izumita-Form13a.jpg (147078 bytes)Izumita-Form13c.jpg (149665 bytes)Izumita-Form13d.jpg (162934 bytes)
Form No.13
Ceramic vase  8" x 8" x 7"(h)  (3 views)

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Form No.14
Ceramic water jar  9.5" x 8" x 7"(h)  (3 views)

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Form No.15
Ceramic water jar  9" x 8" x 7"  (3 views)
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Form No.16
wood-fired ceramic vase  6" x 4.5" x 4.5"h  (2 views)
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Form No.17
wood-fired ceramic vase  5.5" x 4.5" x 4.5"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form18b.jpg (147275 bytes)Izumita-Form18aa.jpg (138282 bytes) Izumita-Form19b.jpg (107120 bytes)Izumita-Form19a.jpg (129753 bytes)
Form No.18
wood-fired ceramic vase  7" x 3" x 7"h  (2 views)
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Form No.19
wood-fired ceramic vase  7" x 3" x 6"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form20a.jpg (108695 bytes)Izumita-Form20b.jpg (112824 bytes) Izumita-Form21aa.jpg (75313 bytes)Izumita-Form21b.jpg (72016 bytes)
Form No.20
Ceramic vase  4.5" x 3.5" x 7"h  (2 views)
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Form No.21
wood-fired ceramic vase  4.5" x 3.5" x 4.5"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form22a.jpg (75490 bytes)Izumita-Form22b.jpg (70543 bytes) Izumita-Form23a.jpg (64360 bytes)Izumita-Form23b.jpg (62912 bytes)
Form No.22
Ceramic vase  5" x 3" x 4.5"h  (2 views)
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Form No.23
wood-fired ceramic vase  9" x 3" x 3.5"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form25b.jpg (127645 bytes)Izumita-Form25a.jpg (112805 bytes)
Form No.25 "Still Point II"
wood-fired ceramic form  18.5" x 16" x 7"h  (2 views)
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Izumita-Form26b.jpg (93507 bytes)Izumita-Form26a.jpg (83668 bytes)
Form No.26  "Dune"
wood-fired ceramic form  16" x 12" x 5.5"h  (2 views)
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Solo Exhibitions
1996   Tanaka-ya, Hirosaki
1999   Kawatoku-kyubu, Morioka (5 times since 1999)
2000   Miharu-ya, Hachinohe (3 times since 2000)
2003   Ginza Renga Garo, Tokyo (4 times since 2003)
          Gallery Anri, Nagoya (2 times since 2003)
2004   Gallery Oiso, Kanagawa
          INAX Tile Museum, Tokoname
          Gallery Kaze-no-Kura, Yamagata (3 times since 2004)
2005   Miharu-do Gallery, Tokyo (3 times since 2005)
2006   Gallery Takubo, Sendai
          Gallery Kyoeigama, Tokoname
2007   Mumon-an Gallery, Tokyo
          Mitsukoshi Department Store, Sapporo
          Keio Department Store, Tokyo
2008   Mitsukoshi Department Store, Sendai
2009   Gallery Tourou, Nagoya
          Mitsukoshi Department Store, Sapporo
          Touching Stone Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
2010  Takashimaya Department Store, Okayama
          Mitsukoshi Department Store, Sapporo
          Touching Stone Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

Awards & Honors
1995   Excellence Award, Nittshin Menbachi Grand Prize Exhibition
2000   Grand Prize, 38th Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition
2002   Grand Prize, 40th Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition
2004   Invitational, 22th Asahi Modern Craft Exhibition
2009   Excellence Award, 20th Japan Ceramic Art Exhibition