“Shuki: The Art of Sakeware” Exhibition

Cavin-Morris Gallery

[Image: Mike Weber "Guinomi' (2020) Wood fired ceramic 2.25 x 2.25 x 3 in.]

This event has ended.

A beautiful fire,
And some beautiful sake,
How warming it is.
A haiku by the Japanese poet Yamaguchi Seison

The first contemporary ceramic of any kind that I ever held in my hand was a small guinomi by Mike Weber given to me by my wife Shari as a seasonable gift. I was stunned. It was a world unto itself. It was like a songline of alchemy. Textured earth. It added ceremony and aesthetic to the subtle and life enhancing attraction of sake; a beverage that in itself added glow to a cuisine bound up in mankind’s intimacy with Nature.

Our fascination with both Western and Eastern ceramics grew rapidly from there. It was as if the Weber guinomi opened a life-changing door that fit so perfectly into our already wide-ranging artistic worldview. Surface power in its ageless intricacy, an intentionality that lifted it from the mundane without losing its utility; it was art that made the ordinary special.

This guinomi began an ongoing dedication and fascination with the potentials of clay; with the Japanese models from ancient to avant-garde as ceramics became a fundamental part of our lives. If I was to be one of those fortunate enough to order an African-style coffin made for me by one of those master artists of Ghana, I would love to be received by the earth in a large chawan or tokkuri.

Shuki or sakeware is made for the hand. It nestles perfectly. The sake bottle or tokkuri holds the perfect amount to render the mutual pourings of the pale liquid casually ceremonial.

The works we are presenting in this exhibition are just the tip of an iceberg. They are selections rather than an attempt to be encyclopedic. The choices are personal rather than an attempt to present a survey. There is a timeless immediacy to them. After I read that my friend in Kyoto, Robert Yellin, brought his own guinomi to the restaurants he ate in I began to do the same and will continue to do so. And yes, the people in the restaurants have always been lovely about it.

We all wait till the restaurants open again and we can revel in the intimacy of anonymous crowds ebullient and relaxed in the presence of clean, beautifully prepared Japanese food.

Till then we make do it at home with shuki by the same artists whose works we offer on this first of two exhibitions; this first dedicated to sakeware and the next dedicated to the eloquent chawan form. We lift our guinomi as we fill yours and say Kompay to you till then.