TO LOOK AGAIN

MYOSYU WATARU

September 23 - October 14, 2023

Opening reception on Saturday, September 23rd from 4- 7pm

1545 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA

Blumenfield Projects is pleased to announce To Look Again, an exhibition of new work by Kameoka-based Japanese artist Myosyu Wataru (b. 1990, Kameoka, Japan). His first solo presentation outside of Japan, features two bodies of work which employ ceramic boxes and vessels as vehicles for material investigations of time. Drawing from varied influences- from the Japanese metaphorical philosophy of Mitate (to look or to see again), to the discovery of a plaster Moroccan box dating from c. 2 bc, to a childhood fascination with rocks- Wataru looks to the physicality of time in each of these distinguished moments to encourage a new perspective, one that views something old in a new light.

"In a small box, there are things that are unforgettable, things that we cannot forget, but also things that the people to whom we give our treasures cannot forget. The past, the present, and the future are all condensed there. In this way, the small box becomes a memory of the past.”

-Gaston Bashlar, The Poetics of Space

HAKEME

刷毛目

15 July - 5 August, 2023

1545 W Sunset, Los Angeles, CA 90026

The framework of Akihide Nakao’s enduring practice helps to circumvent the West’s relationship to objects of utility. By encouraging a new connection to objects for the home—known as “tableware”—Nakao reclaims them as “freeware.” These freewares exist outside of the regulatory rules that traditions often dictate, and so encourage a reciprocal relationship between the object and the individual. They are for use and should be held without restraint.

AKIHIDE NAKAO

A solo exhibition

The visually rich and gestural works of Akihide Nakao relay the lively energy of an artist who has spent a lifetime making work like a child. Playfully unrestrained, Nakao’s layered approach embraces the history behind the development of Oribe and the innovation that this term has come to represent. The catalogue for the exhibition Turning Point: Oribe and the Arts of Sixteenth-Century Japan at The Met Museum in New York stated that “the term ‘Oribe’ neatly captures the spirit of creative nonconformity—a quality strikingly evident in the taste and deeds of the warlord and tea master Furuta Oribe (1544–1615).” Centuries later, the ethos of Furuta Oribe lives on through the celebration of the Oribe glazes that are now widely characterized as the deep blue, green, and black copper glazes seen on ceramics today.

When asked if he thought of himself as an artist or potter (a common question that many working in clay face), Nakao replied, “I have never thought about whether I am an artist or not. I am not a good potter, I don't make objects, and I don't really know who I am. I am happy that people appreciate what I make for fun.”

Despite having exhibited widely within Japan in two-person and solo exhibitions as well as several group exhibitions such as the Japanese Traditional Crafts Exhibition at the Shimane Art Museum, the China–Japan International Ceramic Art Exhibition, the Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition at the Meguro Museum of Art, and the Tokai Traditional Crafts Exhibition,Hakeme marks the first solo exhibition of Nakao’s works outside of Japan.

As part of a quarterly presentation

within

 Atelier Éditions Showroom

Earth Room

Los Angeles, California

May 20th- June 17, 2023

Graham Collins, Courtney Duncan, Jaye Kim , Maddy Inez Leeser, Amelia Lockwood, Erica Mao, Ōmbia Studio, Annabeth Rosen, Aili Schmeltz, Patrice Renee Washington 

“A relationship is only that—

The space between two shapes. A Shape.”

-Rachel Mannheimer, Earth Room 

 
“Earth Room” gathers the work of ten artists whose ceramics explore the fertile relationships within our interior and exterior landscapes and how they fuse an alternate concept of the whole; A shape created of a void. The exhibition includes the work of Graham Collins, Courtney Duncan, Jaye Kim, Maddy Inez Leeser, Amelia Lockwood, Erica Mao, Ōmbia Studio, Annabeth Rosen, Aili Schmeltz, and Patrice Renee Washington.
 
Where the mere suggestion of a void can elicit feelings of vast emptiness, a lack of content, or simply, the feeling of nothingness, it can also be approached as a generative openness—a spatial moment of possibility, where disparate perspectives can find ground for connectivity and new potential.

Though arriving at ceramics from varying backgrounds, the deeply personal narratives of each artist offer pathways into their embodied practices and their shared material investigations. This exhibition presents an explosive array of form and surface that addresses themes of the past, the present, motherhood, alternate realities, race, home, and the architecture that defines those spaces. These works encompass, withhold, and give weight to a post-formal observation of life from a multitude of vantage points, rather than just one.  

Earth Room is but a moment, an invitation to take pause, inhabit the space, and to forge a new connection. 

Venue: Sarah Brook Gallery
5229 Hollywood Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90027 

Hours: 
Wednesday-Saturday 
Noon-5pm 

Schedule of Events:
Curator's walk-through/ preview : Thursday, May 18th, 2023

Artists and curators will be present

Co-curated by
Clay CA and Blumenfield Projects for Sarah Brook Gallery.

IN THE FLOW

Kyoto, Japan

PRESS RELEASE 

November 16—21, 2022

10am—5pm

Aiko Yuno, Akane Saijo, Diana Yesenia Alvarado, Ida Badal, Jenny Hata Blumenfield, Lizette Hernandez, Misa Shinshi, Narumi Nekpenekpen, Roksana Pirouzmand, Saori Kunihiro

油野 愛子、西條茜、ダイアナ・イェセニア・アルバラード、アイダ・バダル、ジェニー秦ブルメンフィールド、リゼット・ヘルナンデス、進士 三紗、成美　ネクペンネクペン、ロクサナ・ピロウズマン、國廣 沙織

Venue: Kunjukan 

(An exhibition space within a 300-year-old incense store)
310 Shinnyodocho, Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto

A satellite exhibition of Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK Fair), In the Flow pays homage to Kyoto’s rich history and relationship to its cities’ shrines by occupying a gallery space within a 300-year-old traditional incense store. 

By allowing the scent of incense to set the sensory stage for the exhibition, In the Flow showcases a unique bridge of artists from Los Angeles and Tokyo.  

Schedule of Special Events:

11/16 @ 10am - 5pm Opening Reception

*Snacks and tea offfered throughout the day.

11/16 @ 11am Curators Walk-Through Event

11/20 @ 11am Artist Walk-Through Event

*Artists and curators will be present

Co-curated by Roche x Blumenfield Projects