Harumi Nakashima Art

Japanese artist Harumi Nakashima creates free-form ceramic sculptures that feature organic, yet psychedelic characteristics. Nakashima, mostly known for beautifully structured, odd g...

Japanese artist Harumi Nakashima creates free-form ceramic sculptures that feature organic, yet psychedelic characteristics. Nakashima, mostly known for beautifully structured, odd g...

Harumi Nakashima is the Director of Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center. Based in the port city of Nagoya Japan, Nakashima creates stunning hand-built porcelain sculptur...

Harumi Nakashima is the Director of Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center. Based in the port city of Nagoya Japan, Nakashima creates stunning hand-built porcelain sculptur...

Outstanding and large porcelain biomorphic abstract sculpture covered in clear glaze and regularly distributed opulent cobalt blue polka dots of varying sizes, titled ‘Twisting Back, Multiplying’, hand-built by the highly praised Japanese ceramic artist Harumi Nakashima (1950). Signed at the bottom in a dot '1104 Haru'. Made in 2011. Documented on the website of the artist himself. Born in 1950 in Ena, Gifu Prefecture, Harumi Nakashima is known for his biomorphic porcelain sculptures decorated with opulent blue dots. He excels in clay creations far removed from both tradition and functionality. Taking great care to achieve a flawless surface and form, each piece is created over the course of six months. Nakashima's early reputation was cemented as one of the leading teachers at the Tajimi Pottery Design and Technical Center, having trained and influenced many of the promising young ceramicists of Japan since 1976. Nakashima has received leading prizes and tributes. With works collected by 20 public institutions the world over, including the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Faenza Ceramics Museum in Italy, he is one of Japan's most celebrated porcelain artist. Influenced by the blue sometsuke (under-glaze) motifs of traditional Japanese porcelain, Nakashima's motifs also use cobalt blue over-glaze. Yet unlike traditional methods, Nakashima's blue dots are painted over the body of a work after the main firing, and then fired into the white glaze of the porcelain with a second firing using the technique of "in-glazing", thereby leading to the sinking of the dots upon the white overglaze. Perhaps more surprising is the fact that his organic, sprawling and fluid porcelain bodies are entirely hand-built. As porcelain is extremely difficult to manipulate by free-hand, Nakashima intentionally uses this method to create not only tension, but an epic "battle with clay". He is currently based in the port city of Nagoya, and some of his more recent exhibitions are; 2021 Art Market San Francisco, Duane Reed Gallery...

Harumi Nakashima is the Director of Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center. Based in the port city of Nagoya Japan, Nakashima creates stunning hand-built porcelain sculptur...

Harumi Nakashima is the Director of Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center. Based in the port city of Nagoya Japan, Nakashima creates stunning hand-built porcelain sculptur...

Japanese artist Harumi Nakashima creates free-form ceramic sculptures that feature organic, yet psychedelic characteristics. Nakashima, mostly known for beautifully structured, odd g...

Japanese artist Harumi Nakashima creates free-form ceramic sculptures that feature organic, yet psychedelic characteristics. Nakashima, mostly known for beautifully structured, odd g...

Japanese artist Harumi Nakashima creates free-form ceramic sculptures that feature organic, yet psychedelic characteristics. Nakashima, mostly known for beautifully structured, odd g...

Japanese artist Harumi Nakashima creates free-form ceramic sculptures that feature organic, yet psychedelic characteristics. Nakashima, mostly known for beautifully structured, odd geometric shapes embellished with iconic polka dots, works with a level of intricacy that demonstrates the artist’s attention to detail. The sculptor often evokes the Sodeisha art movement, a 1940s reactionary effort against the dominion of Japan’s popular folk-craft styles (especially the traditional, functional aspects of Japanese pottery) and ceramics created for the purpose of tea ceremonies. Sodeisha, known for its modern take on traditional Japanese aesthetics, was disbanded in 1998. However, artists like Nakashima have thrived tremendously by incorporating Sodeisha references into their current pieces. A contemporary aesthetic and subtle, refined references to traditional Japanese pottery allow the works to be perceived aesthetically rather than functionally. "Internal Shape 09", Abstract...

Japanese artist Harumi Nakashima creates free-form ceramic sculptures that feature organic, yet psychedelic characteristics. Nakashima, mostly known for beautifully structured, odd g...