Kim Riyoo

Photo: NOMA

Kim is a ceramist and artist whose work encompasses sculpture and tea bowls. He belongs to a cohort of ceramists inspired by contemporary art and manga who emerged on the art scene in the 2010s. His work is characterized by an aesthetic sensibility that ignores genre and notions of artistic hierarchy in regard to fine art, subculture, decorative art, and manga. His wicked, one-eyed sculptures combine indigenous Jomon rope patterns, the modern aesthetic of motorcycle engine cooling fins, and a taste for fantasy reminiscent of fighting “mecha” anime. For the exhibition, an installation featuring Kim’s signature one-eyed sculpture series, which he has continued to make throughout his career, emerges in a storehouse display connecting light and darkness.

プロフィール

b. 1980 in Osaka Prefecture. Kim completed an MFA at the Osaka University of Arts in 2006. His recent exhibitions include Exchange and Experimentation: Toward a New Generation of Ceramic Art (SCPP Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, 2019), No Man’s Land: The Future of Ceramic Art, the Unseen Beyond the Horizon (Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, 2021), and his solo exhibition Mizuchinochi (Space Ohara, Tajimi, 2022). His works are included in the collections of the Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, and the Zojoji Temple Treasure Gallery (Tokyo).

[Past work] “Shigaraki Tanuki
Mutation,” 2018, glazed stoneware. Private collection. Photo: Ishiguro Akira

[Past work] “Ungyo Blue Flame Nyudo,” 2006, glazed stoneware. Private collection.

[Past work] “Shigaraki Earthenware Pot Mutation,” 2018, glazed stoneware. Private collection.

[Past work] “Ungyo Blue Flame Nyudo,” 2006, glazed stoneware. Private collection.

[Past work] “Shigaraki Earthenware Pot Mutation,” 2018, glazed stoneware. Private collection.