DECORATED CERAMICS FOR THE NEW WORLD
Harumi Ota - Mitsu Ikemura - Robert Amos
Community Arts Council Gallery
June 10 -16, 2004

Three well-known Victoria artists have collaborated to take their art in new directions. It's an event you won't want to miss.

Three years ago, while interviewing potter Harumi Ota, Victoria art writer and artist Robert Amos let slip his long-held dream. "I wish I lived next door to a potter," he confessed. " I've always wanted to decorate pots. Not that I want to make ceramics - I just want to decorate them." Ota answered, "No problem".

Soon Victoria artist Mitsu Ikemura, who had in the first place introduced Amos and Ota, was brought on board. Ota would create a collection of porceleain and stoneware, and each of the artists would decorate plates and bowls according to his own taste.

Now the dream has been brought to reality, a reality of complexity and beauty beyond what any of them had imagined. The results will be revealed to the public at the Community Arts Council Gallery (G6-1001 Sussex Place) June 10 to 15, 2004.

Harumi Ota is a master potter from Japan who has been living and working in Victoria for the past six years. He was trained in the Kutani tradition of western Japan, an ancient style of pottery noted for its complex patterns and rich overglaze colours. He worked as a production potter for many years, and is an art school graduate with an excellent reptution foroutrageous and cutting-edge ceramics in Japan.

For this exhibit, Ota will present two bodies of ceramic work. First is a series of masterful recreations of masterworks of Kutani pottery, large bowls meticulously coloured with rich overglaze enamels. Second is a collection of radical slab wares, outrageous in form and unexpectedly colourful. On June 12 at 3pm Ota will present an illustrated lecture on Kutani pottery.

Mitsu Ikemura trained as an architect in Japan, and pursued his professional career in Kyoto, Toronto and Edmonton. In 1986 he decided to devote himself to the visual arts. A series of residences in the Leighton Studio of the Banff Centre of Fine Arts has allowed him to create dazzling semi-abstract paintings and sculptures which have been shown to acclaim in top commercial galleries in Toronto, Edomonton, Calgary and Victoria.

Ikemura has travelled the world over the past ten years. His sketchbooks are bursting with images from Greece, Egypt, Bali, India, Peru, Mexico, Turkey and elsewhere. Embarking on a new avenue of artistic expression he has decorated large platters and bowls with intricately detailed patterns inspired by his travels. Ikemura will present a commentary of the creative process behind his works at the opening party, June 10 at 7pm.

Robert Amos (www.robertamos.com) is well known for his paintings of Vicotira and as art writer for the Victoria Times Colonist. His studio and gallery in the Cook Street Village welcomes thousands of visitors each year.

Amos has been studying the works of James Joyce for 30 years, in particular that author's famous unread novel Finnegans Wake. His calligraphic inscriptions of Joyce's writing have brought him fame among Joyceans world-wide. Bringing his spirited brush to the procelain bodies, he has inscribed all manner of Ota's ceramics with Joyce's phrases, enriched and embellished with designs derived from Chinese pottery and intricate Celtic knotwork.

James Joyce's novel Ulysses is considered to be the most important work of fiction of the 20th century, a book which is entirely concerned with one day - June 16, 1904, universally known as Bloomsday. This year is the centennial of that day and will be celebrated around the globe. Amos will lead Victoria's Bloomsday celebration by reading from Ulysses at the closing of the show, June 15 at 7pm.

Whatever your interest - Victoria artists, Japanese pottery, James Joyce - you'll find this a fascinating show, fittingly entitled Decorated Ceramics for the New World.

Show runs: Thursday June 10 - Wednesday June 16, 2004

Community Arts Council Gallery (in Sussex Place, G6-1001 Douglas Street)

Thursday, June 10th @ 7pm - Opening reception with artists in attendence, presentation by Mitsu Ikemura

Saturday, June 12 @ 3pm - Harumi Ota presents an illustrated lecture on the Kutani Pottery of Japan

Tuesday, June 15 @ 7pm - Robert Amos reading from James Joyce's Ulysses.

for more information, call Robert Amos 389-0303