Shinichi Sawada: Agents of Clay

Anthropomorphic ceramics bridging the realms of contemporary art and traditional crafts

The first solo exhibition of work by the Japanese ceramicist Shinichi Sawada (born 1982) is copresented by Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Sawada began creating ceramics in 2000 at Nakayoshi Fukushikai as part of a government program to help physically challenged and/or neuro-divergent individuals find employment and sustain independent and productive lives. For the last two decades, supported by ceramics facilitator Masaharu Iketani, Sawada has worked to produce alluring, mesmerizing figures: often hybrid creatures densely patterned with chopstick-traced lines and painstakingly applied bumps, horns and “scales.” This publication features approximately 20 of Sawada’s sculptures, creating a fantastical array of forms and features that echo elements of outsider art history while also offering the opportunity to explore the millennia-old tradition of the Shigaraki kilns where Sawada works.