The moon jar is the most famous ceramic form to come out of Korea, beloved by collectors and potters alike. They become a celebration of the imperfections in nature, with slight distortions that occur to the shape during firing.
Akiko Hirai’s moon jars are perhaps her most significant and well-known work. The extraordinary surfaces are completely unlike the traditional moon jar, which is pale, simple, white and austere, and encapsulates everything that is magical about Hirai’s work.
Recently in conversation with Izesaki Kôichiro (b. 1974) discussing his first solo exhibition at Goldmark Gallery, he alluded to the experience of working with clay as being ‘one of presence with the clay and of being present with and through the process.’ Kôichiro feels clay is a living entity (ikimono) and he works with its … Read more
Potter, writer and academic Sebastian Blackie takes a look at Ken Matsuzaki’s 2011 exhibition at Goldmark Gallery. It was extraordinary that the exhibition took place at all. Ken’s hometown of Mashiko had been devastated by a huge earthquake in March that year; fortunately these pots had been dispatched for the UK just before it had struck.
