PORTLAND, Ore., United States—February 3, 2025—Portland Japanese Garden is excited to present its first new art exhibition of 2025 with Earthen Elegance: The Ceramic Art of Bizen. Opening Saturday, February 8 and running through June 9 in the Pavilion Gallery, this exhibition celebrates contemporary ceramic art and vessels that preserve a time-honored collaboration of earth, fire, and the artist’s hand. Among the works are pieces by famous Bizen ceramicists, including Jun Isezaki, a Living National Treasure of Japan, and by Ryūichi Kakurezaki, one of Japan most innovative contemporary sculptors.
The city of Bizen is a ceramic center that has continued its unique form of pottery for over 900 years. Notable for their rustic, textured, and unglazed forms, the works featured in Earthen Elegance reveal the breadth of techniques that define Bizen pottery. Silken clay, dredged from the earth that sustains rice paddies, is combined with grittier clay pulled from mountainous surroundings. It is then expertly transformed through the process of firing in wood-fueled kilns. The resulting ceramics speak to humankind’s coexistence with nature.
Earthen Elegance features art on loan from the Collection of David Sneider and Naomi Pollock. Sneider, an international lawyer, and Pollock, an architect and author, lived and worked in Japan for 30 years. Deeply moved by the artistry and craftsmanship of Japanese pottery, they assembled an extensive collection which spans the full horizon of contemporary Japanese ceramics. Within Bizen ceramics, they marvel at how a particularly large number of innovative artists are applying local materials and time-honored techniques to create work that respects tradition and yet is truly modern.
Contemporary Bizen’s reverence for tradition, attention to their raw materials, and adherence to aesthetic simplicity informed by nature provides the ideal complement to the curated scenery at Portland Japanese Garden.
Event Information
Earthen Elegance: The Ceramic Art of Bizen
February 8 – June 9, 2025
Pavillion Gallery, Portland Japanese Garden
611 SW Kingston Ave. Portland, OR 97205
(503) 223-1321 (main)
Cost: Included with Daily Admission
Hours & Admission found here
Visual Assets
Images can be found in this Dropbox folder. The photographer’s name is in the file name. Please stylize the credit as “Courtesy of Portland Japanese Garden, photo by [fill in name].” If no photographer is listed, “Courtesy of Portland Japanese Garden” will suffice. Images of the exhibition will be included when available.
Media Contact
Will Lerner, Communications Manager
(503) 542-9351 (office)
wlerner@japanesegarden.org
About Portland Japanese Garden
Portland Japanese Garden is a nonprofit organization originally founded in 1963 as a place for cross-cultural understanding following World War II. A hallmark in the City of Portland, the Garden was founded on the ideals of peace and mutual understanding between peoples and cultures. Portland Japanese Garden is considered the most authentic Japanese garden outside of Japan and the foremost Japanese cultural organization in North America.
About Japan Institute
Japan Institute was established in 2022 as a global cultural initiative of Portland Japanese Garden. This sibling organization is the programmatic arm of Portland Japanese Garden, allowing us to share and expand our cultural programs more broadly around the world, deepen international partnerships, and continue to engage diverse people in shared experiences and conversations about peace, beauty, and connection of nature.
Portland Japanese Garden & Japan Institute share the mission: Inspiring Harmony & Peace.