Kusaka, known for her works in continuous tension between abstract and figurative, has developed a project for Rome that is strongly focused on the geometries of abstraction. The ceramics on display, variations on the shape of the vase, are drawn and engraved with continuous geodesic lines through a process that is both systematic and intuitive. Minimalist repetitions extend along the rounded volumes echoing the grids of Agnes Martin or the wall drawings of Sol LeWitt, and revealing the irregularities of the hand-drawn line to create sinuous oscillating terrains.
In her work, Kusaka blends the refined traditional workmanship of ceramics with playful details and subjects such as basketballs, fruit, dinosaurs, raindrops and wood grain. The geometric works offer a more immediate demonstration of the artist's technical mastery who, by concentrating on the elaboration of a single process, discovers its infinite variations.
In earlier abstract works Kusaka often "terminated" a line or grid pattern as it became distorted by the curvature of the vase, producing fragmented patterns, such as superimposed designs, which contradicted the three-dimensional volume of the vase. In these new works, however, the artist takes an almost topographical approach, developing the tactile dexterity necessary to work on the wheel by carving or drawing intricate lines along each surface of the vase.
By letting the three-dimensionality of each vase determine the concentric curves of the lines, Kusaka merges the primordial creative acts of drawing and sculpture. While some lines appear thin and parallel, others resemble waves and topographic patterns. The largest vases ever made by the artist will be on display, arranged on a long and curved pedestal, and glazed in various colours, from pale blue to pink and yellow to a placid off-white. The thick liquid stops above the base of each one: a necessary precaution for cooking over a fire, and a subtle reminder of the alchemical transformations typical of this technique. In a selection of smaller vases, Kusaka re-proposes many of the engraved motifs as pencil drawings on a white ground, creating more intimate, sketch-like echoes of the larger works. The artist thus reaffirms the method-based technique of the Minimalists, and also underlines the infinite potential of the form itself which varies from large to small, from liquid to solid, from two to three dimensions.
Left: Shio Kusaka, (line 68), 2017, stoneware, 24 3/4 × 9 × 9 inches (62.9 × 22.9 × 22.9 cm). Right: Shio Kusaka, (line 67), 2017, stoneware, 23 3/4 × 11 3/4 × 11 3/4 inches (60.3 × 29.8 × 29.8 cm). Both © Shio Kusaka
An illustrated catalog will be published on the occasion of the exhibition.
Shio Kusaka was born in 1972 in Morioka, Japan and lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2001 from the University of Washington, Seattle. His work is included in the following collections: Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands; The Broad, Los Angeles; Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio; and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, Kansas. Recent solo shows include: Whitney Biennial 2014, New York; “Jonas Wood and Shio Kusaka: Blackwelder”, Gagosian, Hong Kong (2015); and “Shio Kusaka and Jonas Wood”, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands (2017–18).
