2024.9.14sat - 10.20 sun

TOYAMAKANAZAWA

ARTISTS

Shakunaga Gaku

  • EXHIBITION

01/3

[Past work] Age, 2020, clay. Private collection. Photo: Yanazume Yuka.

[Past work] Gen, 2020, clay. Private collection. Photo: Yanazume Yuka.

[Past work] Aube, 2020, clay. Private collection. Photo: Yanazume Yuka.

Shakunaga comes from a family of traditional Etchu Seto ware potters. He studied sculpture in college, followed by ceramics at a ceramics school in Kyoto. In 2006, he opened his own studio in Iwase. He previously made ceramic sculptures but has mostly shifted his focus to tableware. His ceramic works are notably unceramic-looking, with textures resembling leather, wood, and cork. He is best known for dishes that position the vessel’s foot on top rather than the bottom. The surface is carved out in the same sculptural process used to carve a regular foot. Shakunaga also produces tableware with a leather-like texture using a glaze he developed for ceramic sculptures. Most of his tableware is purchased by restaurants. His works in this exhibition include large ceramics that illustrate his proficiency as a sculptor.

EXHIBITION

IWASE AREA

I-8|New An

PROFILE

Shakunaga Gaku

b. 1978 in Toyama Prefecture. In 2002, Shakunaga graduated with a degree in sculpture from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music (now Tokyo University of the Arts). He graduated from the Kyoto Prefectural Ceramists' Technical Institute in 2003. In 2006, he left Shoraku Kiln, his family’s studio producing Etchu Seto ware, and began making ceramics in Iwase. Past exhibitions include Ceramic Forms (Yufuku Gallery, 2012), Contemporary Japanese Ceramics (Floating World Gallery, USA, 2010), and Gaku & Amahare: L'assiette pour les cuisiniers (Amahare, 2020). His works are in the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).