Shinichi Sawada - Agents of Clay
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Shinichi Sawada - Agents of Clay
by Shinichi Sawada, artist & editor, Jen Sudul Edwards, editor & introduction, and Lisa Melandri, editor
Shinichi Sawada: Agents of Clay is a catalog from the first solo museum exhibition of Shinichi Sawada’s work in the US. In 2000, Sawada began creating ceramics at Nakayoshi Fukushikai, a social welfare organization in Japan for individuals with disabilities. For the last two decades, he has produced alluring, mesmerizing clay figures that combine features from mammals, fish, birds and insects with creatures from Sawada’s imagination. These sculptures frequently include multiple faces, are covered in eyes, and are densely patterned with incised lines, bumps, horns, and scales.
Co-presented by Contemporary Art Museum, St. Louis and The Mint Museum, this exhibition featured eighteen of Sawada’s sculptures made in the past decade whose fantastical array of forms and features bridge traditional art making and craft production. This exhibition also offered the opportunity to explore the millennia-old tradition of wood-burning Shigaraki kilns and the tradition of Japanese pottery in the mountainous region where Sawada works.
Shinichi Sawada (b. 1982) lives and works in Japan’s Shiga prefecture. His work has featured prominently in major group exhibitions around the world, including The Encyclopedic Palace at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013 curated by Massimiliano Gioni and The Doors of Perception at Frieze New York in 2019. His work is held in the permanent collections of numerous public institutions, including the Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Halle Saint Pierre, Paris; and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca.
Lisa Melandri is the Executive Director at the Contemporary Museum of Art, St. Louis
Jen Sudul Edwards, Chief Curator & Curator of Contemporary Art at the Mint Museum
Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy is a New York-based curator, writer, art historian, and arts and grants administrator. Her practice advocates for underrepresented communities, stories, materials, and approaches in the art world. She is the Director of the New York City Department of Transportation Art.
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis/The Mint Museum, 2024, softcover, 8 x 10.5 inches, 64 pages.




