Kaneta Masanao

Our featured clay artist this winter is Kaneta Masanao, whose second solo exhibition with us shall open in November 2015. Please check back for more information.

An eighth generation Hagi potter, Kaneta Masanao has expanded beyond his hefty heritage to create a more sculptural oeuvre. Perhaps due to Kaneta's training as a sculptural artist, his forms have a strong and dramatic presence that sets them apart from the works by other artists of this traditional ceramic center. Using the centuries-old Hagi white-pink glazes, Kaneta creates unique and readily identifiable functional and non-functional sculptural forms. His signature technique of kurinuki, in which he digs or scoops-out a form out of the clay instead of shaping it on a wheel, further allows him to boldly depart from ancient Hagi traditions.

1953 Born in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture
1977 Graduated from Department of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of Education, majored in sculpture
1979 Completed degree in sculpture in the Fine Art Research Department of the graduate school of Tsukuba University
1981 Participated in Hagi International Sculpture symposium (stone carving)
1985 Became an official member of the Japan Art and Crafts Institute
1989 Symposium of Asobi at Gallery Saitoan, Hagi, Yamaguchi
1991 Retired from the Japan Arts and Crafts Institute
1994 Featured on NHK Television station, “The Ceramics of Japan”
1998 Featured on NHK Television, “Yakimono Tambo”
2000 Became Assistant Professor at Tsukuba University
2005 Become the 8th generation of Tenryūsan Kiln

Awards:

1981 Award of Excellence, Kyūshū Yamaguchi Ceramics Exhibition
Yamaguchi Prefecture Governor’s Award, Western Japan Ceramics Exhibit
1983 Iwataya Isetan Award, Crafts Exhibition
1984 Mainichi Shibun Award, Kyūshū Yamaguchi Ceramics Exhibition
1989 Received the Michisuke Sugi Award
Miyazaki Prefecture Governor’s Award, Western Japan Ceramics Exhibition
1990 The MITI Minister’s Award, Western Japan Ceramics Exhibition
1996 Award of Promotion and Encouragement for Art and Culture in Yamaguchi Prefecture
1999 Enargia Award for Contemporary Arti
2004 Yamaguchi Prefectural Culture Contribution Award

Select Public Collections:

Asian Art Museum, San Francisco
Brooklyn Museum of Art
The Japan Foundation, Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museum of Ceramic Art, Gifu
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Philadelphia Art Museum, PA
Yale University Art Gallery
Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamaguchi
Yamaguchi Prefectural Hagi Uragami Museum
Yokohama Sogō Museum of Art, Yokohama