Shio Kusaka: One Light Year - (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Shio Kusaka's ceramic vessels articulate poetic connections, creating a cohesive and unique installation.

"It's a striking effect--some pieces are bowl-shaped, others are cylindrical, a few have slim, sloping necks. Their linear arrangement suggests some kind of progression through time and space." --Document Journal

While pulling inspiration and techniques from ancient Japanese ceramics as well as from popular culture and everyday life, Kusaka carves new language into her artwork. Employing various types of clay and firing methods, she experiments with line, color, and size to bring fresh life to the medium. This harmonious presentation is created from individual pieces and thematic groupings--similar in their materiality, hue, and display--resulting in an extraordinary, unified installation to be experienced in the round. With many detail images, this book provides a deep dive into Kusaka's incredible work one light year.

Published after Kusaka's hugely successful exhibition at David Zwirner, New York, in 2022, this catalogue studies her singular installation from all angles.

Review Quotes

"celebrates Kusaka's vision and love for organic creations, imperfections, and traditional methods"-- "Salon Without Walls"

"exquisite vessels...daring forms...vision and love for organic creations, imperfections, and traditional methods"-- "L'Officiel"

"Kusaka merges sculpture and drawing, representation and minimalism. Her work synthesizes from a broad range of visual culture, from ancient Japanese pottery to Sol LeWitt's wall drawings, asserting the role of ceramics within the realm of contemporary art"-- "Archinect"

"Shio Kusaka's light blue vessels practically glow and levitate above the copper sheets they're displayed on, with patterns of concentric lines whose subtle differences emerge through their repetition"-- "Sight Unseen"

About the Author

Shio Kusaka has become known for her playful and open approach to the ceramic medium, crafting vessels and figures that are both functional and abstract. Painting and incising on thrown porcelain and stoneware surfaces, Kusaka merges sculpture and drawing while asserting the role of ceramics within the realm of contemporary art. Kusaka was born in 1972 in Morioka, Japan, and moved to San Francisco in the early 1990s. After receiving her BFA in 2001 from the University of Washington, Seattle, she moved to Los Angeles, where she currently lives and works.

Adrienne Raphel is the author of Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them (2020) and the poetry collections Our Dark Academia (2022) and What Was It For (2017). Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review, among others. Raphel has been awarded a Visiting Fellowship from the American Library in Paris and serves as a mentor with the Periplus collective. Raphel holds a PhD in English from Harvard University, an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and an AB from Princeton University. She is currently a lecturer in the Princeton Writing Program and teaches with the Berlin Writers' Workshop.