Lee’s ceramics with their subtle colored areas and refined classic shapes are produced not through wheel throwing and glazing. She has searched widely for different clays and natural clay deposits, aging the clays over many years, and skillfully through long trial and error, added various metal oxide colorants to clays which are worked and then shaped together. Lee’s pieces while retaining their functionality convey great sculptural serenity and dignity. Each piece has unique and complex graduations of lighter and darker colored areas. Her surfaces are slightly textured. Impeccably balanced, there is also a strong impression of an almost precipitous abyss, in the elegant line movement created by the edges where different colored clays fuse together, or in the sharply angled vessel mouths. Lee says that each firing allows her to capture a unique moment but also gives her work universality. Her drawings, which are made after each piece is created, serve as a record of the work, and lead the viewer into a world of contemplation by retaining memories of the creation process.
Since her first visit to Japan in 1994, she has been deeply involved with Japan, exhibiting in “U-Tsu-Wa” at 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT (2009), participating in the Sasama International Ceramic Art Festival (2013), undertaking multiple art residencies at Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park (2014, 2015, 2018), and Mashiko Museum of Ceramic Art (2019). Her works are unglazed; rather, she mixes clays with metal oxides to create subtly contrasting bands of color in her elegantly balanced forms. This exhibition is her first show in Japan for five years and will feature ten hand-built vessels, twenty yunomi, a slab and five drawings. We hope you will take this opportunity to visit the exhibition.
Jennifer Lee
Born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1956, Lee studied ceramics and tapestry at Edinburgh College of Art, Scotland and ceramics at the Royal College of Art, London. In 1994, her work was exhibited for the first time in Japan at Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo. In 2009, she was invited to participate in the exhibition "U-Tsu-Wa" produced by Issey Miyake. In 2018, she won the 2nd Loewe Craft Prize. In 2021 she was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Her works have been exhibited at the British Museum, UK; The Victoria and Albert Museum, London,UK; Swedish National Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, U.S.; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota, U.S.; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, U.S.; Ceramic Garden in Shiga, Japan; Mashiko Museum of Art, Tochigi, Japan. The Mashiko Ceramic Museum, Tochigi, Japan; and the Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, Japan.
For more information and images, please contact:
info@gallery-sokyo.jp / Tel: 075-746-4456
Sokyo Gallery | 381-2 Motomachi, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto 605-0089 Japan
