The Cleveland Ceramics of Yasuhisa Kohyama

Yasuhisa Kohyama (b.1936 in Shigaraki, Japan) is a contemporary master of the ancient practice of Sueki, a pottery making technique that originated in southern China and was brought to Japan from South Korea in the fourth century B.C. With Sueki, the potter uses no glazes and develops a glassy appearance, striking surface textures, and a range of muted natural colors only through use of a particular clay body high in aggregate, a very high temperature firing in a wood burning kiln, and the placement of the pottery in relationship to the heat and swirling wood ash of the kiln.

Kohyama’s works are collected internationally and were first brought to the attention of Clevelanders when they were purchased for The Cleveland Museum of Art by Director Sherman Lee. Kohyama has given three intensive workshops at the Cleveland Institute of Art (CIA) and Kent State University, in 1993 and 1999, and most recently at the Cleveland Institute of Art in fall 2008.
This exhibition includes 16 boldly formed pieces created by Kohyama while at the CIA this past fall and fired this spring in the wood kiln at Kent State University’s Art Department.