Shiro Tsujimura’s art finds its basis upon the beauty and purity of the earth, and its relationship and transformation with nature and fire. He uses local earth from the landscape surrounding his home to create clay. He molds it and fires it in a wood-burning kiln, which results in the dramatic rivulets of natural ash glaze that decorate its surface. In the kiln, a new, uncontrollable action occurs—some are rendered perfectly, while other works fall apart and start to mingle with nearby pots or bowls resulting in an asymmetrical, seemingly imperfect shape. After the firing, Tsujimura allows the creations to mature over time in his wild garden. Cracks and what some might perceive as flaws are inherently the opposite: they are a product of nature and time, a purely unique creation that has occurred beyond the will of the human being. Shiro Tsujimura is one of the most prominent contemporary ceramic artists and has achieved legendary notoriety in his native Japan. Tsujimura’s work is exhibited regularly throughout Japan and can be found both in private collections as well as museum collections in Japan and the United States, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, and The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, as well as in Europe. His ceramics have also been exhibited in New York, Paris, London, and Frankfurt.
[excerpted from Axel Vervoordt Gallery website: www.axel-vervoordt.com]