Harumi Nakashima

"Proliferating Forms 2024", Contemporary, Ceramic, Sculpture, Porcelain, Japan

2020

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 sculptures of incredible complexity and beauty. Taking great care to achieve a flawless surface and form, each piece is created over the course of six months. A celebrated avante garde ceramicist, Nakashima also previously held the position of professor at the Aichi University of Education (2003 - 2014), and Special Professor (2014 - 2016). He has been an official member of the International Academy of Ceramics since 1992. 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.