Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan showcases 36 contemporary Japanese women ceramic artists. Drawn from the renowned Horvitz Collection, the exhibition highlights innovative, technically ambitious sculptures created since the 1970s by both established and emerging artists. The works explore diverse motifs—human anatomy, flora, geology, and abstract forms—through bold approaches to scale, color, and surface. Rejecting gendered expectations, these artists work across traditionally so-called “feminine” and “masculine” subjects in unconventional ways. Each artist, in their own distinctive way, produces sculpture that pushes the physical limits of the medium. Together, the works in the exhibition reveal an overlooked history of creative excellence while expanding understanding of contemporary Japanese ceramics today.
Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz Collection. The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by generous DMA Members and donors, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture.
Images: Fukuromono (Bag Work), 2018. Tanaka Yū. Glazed Shigaraki stoneware. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Yū Tanaka. Photo by Richard Goodbody; Jomon Fantasia, 2017. Shigematsu Ayumi. Earthenware. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Shigematsu Ayumi, courtesy Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. Photo by Richard Goodbody; Erosion No. 4 Shokka (Eroding Flower), 2021. Shingū Sayaka. Glazed and unglazed stoneware. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Shingū Sayaka, courtesy Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. Photo by Richard Goodbody; In Her Shoes, 2007. Matsuda Yuriko. Enameled and glazed porcelain. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Matsuda Yuriko, courtesy Dai Ichi Arts, Ltd. Photo by Richard Goodbody; Big Birth, 2016. Futamura Yoshimi. Stoneware coated with white porcelain. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Futamura Yoshimi. Photo by Richard Goodbody; Mugon (Wordless), 1994. Fujino Sachiko. Glazed stoneware. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Fujino Sachiko. Photo by Richard Goodbody; Seraphim, 2016. Fujikasa Satoko. Stoneware. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Fujikasa Satoko. Photo by Richard Goodbody; Shura, 2020. Yamaguchi Mio. Glazed stoneware. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Yamaguchi Mio. Photo by Richard Goodbody; Untitled (Crushed Asahi Beer Box), 2007. Mishima Kimiyo. Glazed and silkscreened stoneware. Carol & Jeffrey Horvitz Collection of Contemporary Japanese Ceramics. © Kimiyo Mishima. Courtesy of the Estate of Kimiyo Mishima and Nonaka-Hill. Photo by Richard Goodbody.