Kino Satoshi (b. 1987), Mountain Gust, 2016. Bluish-white glazed porcelain, 12 1/4 x 28 x 3 3/8in.

NEW YORK, NY.- For Joan B. Mirviss Ltd.'s 36th year participating at the prestigious 63rd
Winter Antiques Show the gallery will be featuring a carefully selected group of both antiqueand contemporary Japanese art unified by the theme of “ao,” a term that conveys both blueand green and symbolizes the combination of earth and sky. Combining Japan’s profoundceramic history with refined aesthetic design, the artists in this exhibition are visionaries who
successfully transformed time-honored artistic traditions into widely acclaimed and collectedart.
Since its introduction to Japan from China in the 12th century, celadon has evolved from anotoriously difficult but highly prized glaze to one that can be manipulated to yield a wide
range of alluring “ao” shades as well as tones of gray, yellow and even burgundy red.
Kawase Shinobu (b.1950), one of Japan’s most prominent artist working within this tradition,
has earned the nickname “Seiji sensei” or the Master of Celadon, and his work has beenfeatured in over one hundred exhibitions throughout the world. Unlike Kawase, Fukami
Sueharu (b.1947), has focused his efforts exclusively on seihakuji (bluish-white celadon) anddevised a high-pressure slip casting process to achieve pure, sharp sculptures in porcelain(one especially elegant form has been on display at the MMA for over a decade). Following
in the footsteps of these artists, the young Kino Satoshi (b. 1987) has made remarkably fast
strides in the field of celadon with his billowing ribbon-like sculptures. Despite his young age,
Kino has successfully had his work exhibited and collected by museums across threecontinents.

The sometsuke (blue-and-white glazing) tradition was also imported from China to Japan in
the 14th century and is characterized by hand-painted cobalt blue underglaze designs on
white porcelain or stoneware. Fukumoto Fuku (b. 1973) works in the sometsuke tradition andher use of both blue and green glazes as an adhesive for her unglazed, thinly walled, white
porcelain sculptures has made her a leading figure in the second generation of female
ceramists who are changing the landscape of contemporary Japanese clay. Unlike therefined Chinese-inspired aesthetics of celadon and sometsuke, oribe was domesticallyconceived in the Momoyama Period (1573-1615) and is one of Japan’s oldest coloredglazes, admired for its rich emerald green hue. Katō Yasukage (1964-2012), the late 14th
master in his familial line of Mino ceramists, artfully uses copper-green oribe on sculpturally
focused functional forms and his work continues to garner acclaim both in Japan and theWest.
Furthermore, the gallery has assembled a group of paintings and ukiyo-e prints by renowned
artists who mastered the subtleties of “ao” by skillfully using fugitive ai (indigo), tsuyu(dayflower), and the brighter and more resilient bero ai (Prussian blue) as well as blue-green
mineral pigments. These include fine prints by masters of landscape such as Katsushika
Hokusai (1760-1849), painters inspired by Chinese literati models like Nakabayashi Chikkei(1816-67) or modernists influenced by the Kyoto tradition of naturalism and westernwatercolor aesthetics like Takeuchi Seihō (1864-1942).