Yukiya Izumita – Sekisoh Layers

Description

Yukiya Izumita was born in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, Northern Japan. He learned Kokuji-yaki pottery from master Gakuho Simodake, until 1995, when Izumita established his own kiln in Noda-mura, Iwate Prefecture.

The artist was greatly influenced by his territory, known for its stormy climate. The devastation caused by the 2011 tsunami (during which the artist lost his house), deeply marked his work and his relationship to natural phenomena. Yukiya Isumita works with the clay of his region in forms, lines, curves, which reveal a very particular perception of his environment, both marine and terrestrial.

The Sekisoh Layers series, which he began in 2022, bears witness to the artist’s exceptional work with clay and his relationship to nature. He models the material in such a way as to create layers of exceptional finesse, stretched to the extreme, almost torn, filled with an underlying tension, like waves folding in on themselves.
The whole forms a remarkable balance, with works with lines at the same time hazardous and refined.

The artist has received both national and international recognition, with works in the collections of the Yale University Art Gallery, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Iwate Museum of Art, the Tokonomae City Board of Education, and the Minneapolis Art Institute.