A large, glazed stoneware sculpture that is a deep blue, and is inspired by branch-like form and slow, rhythmic movement of a type of slime mold.
Mori Aya, Japanese, born 1989, Physarum, 2017, glazed stoneware, 39 × 35 1/2 × 27 in., Gift of David T. Frank and Kazukuni Sugiyama 2017.140.1

Living Clay: Artists Respond to Nature

Living Clay: Artists Respond to Nature

March 23, 2019 - April 26, 2020
Mary Griggs Burke Gallery of Japanese Art (Galleries 251, 252, 253)
Free Exhibition

From the golden age of Japanese ceramics at the turn of the 17th century to the avant-garde movements in the postwar era and up to the present day, Japanese ceramicists have sought inspiration in the natural world. This exhibition highlights the work of more than a dozen living Japanese women clay artists whose primarily nonfunctional works represent diverse evocations of or responses to the natural world. Organized in thematic groupings, such as micronature, aquatics, and flora, the exhibition presents recent ceramic works inspired by everything from cells and mold spores to snails and leaves in conversation with contemporary works in other media.

Mori Aya, Japanese, born 1989, Physarum, 2017, glazed stoneware, 39 × 35 1/2 × 27 in., Gift of David T. Frank and Kazukuni Sugiyama 2017.140.1