Japanese · b. 1959, lives Kyoto · Ceramics / Sculpture

Yuki Tanabe

Yuki Tanabe (b. 1959, Kyoto) is a senior figure in the field that sits between ceramic craft and contemporary sculpture. Trained in Kyoto and through a long apprenticeship in the Tamba kilns, she has worked for four decades with the anagama, the single-chamber wood-fired kiln whose week-long firings deposit ash unevenly across the clay. Her vessels, slabs and standing forms are matte and weighty, surfaced in black, iron-brown, ash-grey and bone, and they hesitate between use and uselessness: a jar too severe to fill, a leaning column that reads first as a torso. Tanabe accepts what the kiln decides. Cracks, slumps and the rough crawl of natural glaze are kept rather than corrected, so that each piece records the conditions of its own making. Shown on plinths and set directly on the floor, the work asks to be circled rather than handled. Tanabe's pieces are held in museums of applied and contemporary art across Japan and Europe, and most exist as unique objects. She has exhibited internationally since the early 1990s and continues to fire and work from her studio outside Kyoto. She is represented by Brunner & Sand, Zürich.

The kiln does half the work, and the better half. I shape the clay, set it in the fire for a week, and wait to see what the ash has written on it. What survives, I keep. A pot that can no longer be used has not failed; it has only become quiet.

Selected exhibitions

1993Young Ceramics from Kyoto · Museum of Modern Art, Shiga · group
1997Ash and Iron · Musée Ariana, Geneva · group
2001Tsubo: Vessels by Yuki Tanabe · National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto · solo
2004Between Use and Form · Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich · group
2007Standing Forms · 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa · solo
2010The Weight of Ash · Brunner & Sand, Zürich · solo
2013Fired Earth: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics · Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt · group
2016Quiet Bodies · Brunner & Sand, Zürich · solo
2018Clay and Silence · Keramikmuseum Westerwald, Höhr-Grenzhausen · group
2020Leaning · Brunner & Sand, St. Moritz · solo
2022Anagama: Six Decades of Fire · National Crafts Museum, Kanazawa · group
2024Vessel, Slab, Body · The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo · solo
2025Earthworks · Musée Ariana, Geneva · group
2026Bone and Iron · Brunner & Sand, Zürich · solo

Selected collections

The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich
Musée Ariana, Geneva
Keramikmuseum Westerwald, Höhr-Grenzhausen
National Crafts Museum, Kanazawa
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt

Education

1982BFA Ceramics, Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto
1986Apprenticeship, Tamba wood-firing kiln, Hyōgo
1990Independent studio established, Kyoto

Awards

2003Kyoto Prefecture Culture Prize, Newcomer, Kyoto Prefecture
2011Japan Ceramic Society Award, Japan Ceramic Society
2019MOA Mokichi Okada Award, MOA Museum of Art

Works

15 works · enquiries welcome