"Function Dysfunction" at the Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kyoto, brings together the ceramic works of three Americans: ceramicists Adam Silverman and Ani Kasten, and sculptor Alma Allen. Silverman, who felt that their works shared an aesthetic DNA, brought the three together, explaining that their pieces, which each sourced nature and in distinctive ways, would complement one another.
The theme of the exhibition concerns the utilitarian function of ceramic objects in everyday life in contrast to the non-utilitarian aspect of the art object — and all three artists operate somewhere between the poles.
While mostly unrelated to Japanese traditional ceramics, the exhibition concept is deeply rooted in Kyoto, in particular because it was here in the immediate years following World War II that Sodeisha, an avant-garde group of young potters, turned the utilitarian function of ceramics on its head by creating sculptural works that couldn't be used as cups or bowls.