Sokyo is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Sam Chat. Following his solo exhibition in 2025, this marks his second solo exhibition with Sokyo Gallery. The exhibition will be presented across two venues: Sokyo and Sokyo Annex.
The exhibition, The Mountain that is a God, is about the idea of Indexicality, that the meaningfulness and significance of a work derives from the materials it comprises of and the origin of those materials. The title refers to a Nara period poem in a collection called the Manyoshu. It is a poem about nature and the divine and about the personification of animals to discuss human relationship with nature and the sacred within nature. So the reference felt entirely apposite for this exhibition where the work, is composed of natural materials, which are foraged and unprocessed, and come from very specific locations. The materials themselves have a great deal of life, and so the process of making the works is a very dynamic and very unpredictable dialogue between the artist and the natural material, which seems to contain its own spirit, very strongly. It's then catalysed by the process of firing, which again allows an uncontrolled, although tempered natural spirit to or natural force, to alter adapt and change the piece. The final result of the work is created through the intervention of flame and ash. The colours coming from the clay and from the ash itself, comprising the minerals present within the trees, which come from the local forests and then even the shape of the work changes according to the pressure, the heat, and the humidity caused by the firing.
The exhibition comprises of works produced in two locations, between Britain and Japan. A body of tea bowls and small ceremonial plates were produced in the studio of the Isezaki family and in the studio of Koichiro Isezaki, who is one of the leading artists in Bizen and is able to access the incredibly rare Bizen clay as he has a family store of it. The clay is a particularly eloquent expression of the idea of origin in relation to the result, because it's completely unique in terms of how it behaves in the firing, and in its ability to change colour, responding, not only to the wood and the flame, but also even to the weather, to the atmosphere, to the way it's been fired, and giving a complete imprint of the process. The works were produced in part using a process of carving or cutting, where the artist used a kind of special rope, which is usually used in temples in temple gardens, which when tied around rocks symbolises a limit or an ending or a boundary. The artist felt that it seemed like an appropriate use as it was creating the limits of the work. Chatto was very inspired by the ceramic works that he saw in Bizen, particularly by the ceramic roof tiles. He felt like the construction of these tiles was an interesting process to adapt into making.
The works that Chatto made in Bizen, he felt corresponded to and had a dialogue with the other pieces in this exhibition that he made at his studio in Sussex. They were fired in his wood kiln in an adaptation of Japanese process, but using entirely British materials. These works are also an expression of the power and the symbolism within nature, the clay that the artist has dug from very close to his studio, along with English porcelain from Cornwall. The clay was also shaped a great deal by the particular weather, a combination of very heavy rain and then very bright sunlight. Chatto observed the way this was changing and reforming the clay in its natural state, within the landscape, and he tried to bring some of that feeling of movement, change, of water and of rain, carving the material itself and creating these patterns of water. Chatto says, ‘a lot of this work to me feels like that fluidity and movement and also bringing the clay back to the moment of creation on the wheel and although a lot of these works hand carved, they are on the wheel at certain points in their creation, and the movement of the bowl in the hand during the tea ceremony for me references the process of wheel throwing. So I always design the pots to be turned, to be moved, and to invite the viewer to pick them up and to move them through their hands, which gives them an experience of the texture of the clay and imprint of the landscape and a feeling of the natural process which has created the colour and the form.’
ATTRAVERSO brings together the still-life photography duo Coppi Barbieri, the ceramic artist Sam Chatto and the painter and film artist Eleanor Ekserdjian, and has been conceived with the creative director Jo Hambro.
The Italian word ATTRAVERSO ( through ) describes both this physical process and the exchange at the heart of the project: painting seen through photography, sculpture transformed through painting, and three individual practices coming together to create something that belongs fully to none of them, but is shared by all of them.
Still-life photographers Fabrizio Coppi and Lucilla Barbieri, known as Coppi Barbieri, have had a three decade-long creative partnership. Their still-life photography transforms everyday objects into dreamscapes, which they describe as ‘painting with a camera’. Each shot is taken through a textile screen, with the interplay of light and dark creating a sense of depth.
They were introduced to artists Sam Chatto and Eleanor Ekserdjian by their long-time collaborator Jo Hambro, who saw the possibility of a collaboration between Chatto’s ceramics, Ekserdjian’s textile paintings and Coppi Barbieri’s photography.
Chatto and Ekserdjian are individual artists as well as a couple, their distinct practice existing in an ongoing creative dialogue. This relationship finds a natural parallel in Coppi Barbieri, themselves partners in life and work.
From their earliest work, Coppi Barbieri have explored ways of transforming the everyday through layers of material, light and reflection. Objects emerge as protagonists while simultaneously dissolving into their surroundings.
For ATTRAVERSO, Ekserdjian painted directly onto fabric, with the transparency of the material and the oil paint capturing light, movement and landscape. This fabric is then suspended between the camera and Chatto’s ceramics. Coppi Barbieri photograph the objects ‘through’ these painted screens, allowing colour, light and form to merge within the image.
The translucency of Chatto’s glazes, the form of his porcelain sculptures and their colour all interact with Ekserdjian’s painted marks.
The photography duo Fabrizio Coppi and Lucilla Barbieri met in Milan in 1990 and started to work together as Coppi Barbieri. Forming an alchemical partnership in work and in life, they have become among the most sought after still life photographers in the world. They have honed their technique through years of innovation and experimentation, continuing to inspiration in each other and in nature.
Sam Chatto is a ceramic artist who works between the UK and Japan. Chatto apprenticed under the renowned porcelain master Yagi Akira in Kyoto, where he learned the rigorous techniques of Japanese wheel-throwing. Since then, he has primarily focused on porcelain. For Chatto, porcelain is an immaculate material of memory, which keeps its own life throughout the process of throwing. The pieces he creates seek to capture movement, fluidity, and a sense of life.
Eleanor Ekserdjian is a painter and film artist whose practice blends moving images with rapid mark-making. This process results in abstract works that blend fluid motion with striking precision, capturing both a sense of calm and dynamic movement. Her paintings and drawings evolve into lyrical landscapes that explore shifting emotional responses to film, creating a visual dialogue between stillness and motion. She exhibits internationally and recently showed her debut film Imagined Landscapes at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London.
We hope you will take this precious opportunity to experience his second solo exhibition at our gallery.
