DESIGNED FOR FLOWERS: CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE CERAMICS
Walter's Art Museum
Baltimore, MD
http://thewalters.org/exhibitions/ikebana/
My Role: Initial layout and space planning; content development with curator, exhibit designer and team.
The Japanese art of flower arranging, or ikebana, inspired the creation of many extraordinary ceramic containers. Designed for Flowers: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics outlined the history of some of Japan’s major schools of ikebana and displayed a wide variety of contemporary ceramics created in harmony with the most modern floral conventions.
Japan’s contemporary ceramic artists draw on traditions begun thousands of years ago as they create containers for the presentation of flowers. Inspired in part by Japan’s distinctive ikebana flower arranging styles, the extraordinary ceramics on display in Designed for Flowers: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics exist in unique harmony with these floral traditions. With dramatic designs both traditional and contemporary, this exhibition celebrated the works of many of Japan’s greatest living ceramic artists.
Comprised almost exclusively of vases drawn from the Betsy and Robert Feinberg Collection, the exhibition explored the ways in which contemporary ceramic artists have challenged and come to understand the vessel as a support for flowers. Responding to Japan’s ikebana flower arranging traditions and to the distinctive design aspects of the Japanese interior, the ceramics in this exhibition revealed the beauty and power that has distinguished Japan’s contemporary ceramic artists.
February 2014 – May 2014
