Known mostly for producing exquisite white ceramic ware, Ryota Aoki has about-turned for his current exhibition at Tomio Koyama Gallery, Kyoto. The overwhelming shift is to black wares: think practical, utilitarian tableware such as plates, cups, pitchers and vases. Inundated with orders, particularly from the United States and Canada, international demand for his work now outstrips the domestic, so the ceramicist has expanded his workshop staff to fill orders.
Glazes can be considered a kind of makeup for ceramics because they are applied to embellish the form beneath. When Aoki uses gold glazes on black ceramic wares, the combination dulls the luster of the precious metal and the various pieces appear matte and subdued. To appreciate them more fully you have to get intimate. From a distance these ceramics fail to register their individuality, though witnessed up close and turned in the hand, the thin gold glazes almost look like diffused fingerprints spreading across the vessel surfaces.
Other works in the show reveal Aoki's interest in producing pieces associated with the tea ceremony, and these include a variety of tea bowls in glazes that run the gamut from precious metals such as gold and platinum to some that make the objects appear as if cast in aluminum. In smaller sake cups we get much the same, though particular pieces display a machine precision that contrasts other small bowls with rough sides and uneven rims.