Katsuyo Aoki: Decoration Questions the Contemporary

Jason Jacques Gallery in New York presents work of Japanese artist Katsuyo Aoki in a solo exhibition Dark Globe. The exhibition brings a series of Aoki’s decorative ceramic objects to the gallery.

Aoki, born in 1972 in Tokyo, Japan, is best known for her skull sculptures, but her works also include ceramic objects such as crowns and frames. She began as a painter before taking up ceramics as her primary medium. Working almost exclusively in white porcelain, Aoki elevates her macabre subject matter through the use of elegant, organic swirls, in a style that reminds of Rococo interior design. With the decorative forms, the artist hopes to evoke a feeling of spiritual tranquillity and awe in her viewers, and to express the important contradictions of her contemporary time.

“The decorative styles and forms that I allude to and incorporate in my works each contain a story based on historical backgrounds and ideas, myths, and allegories,” Aoki says in her artistic statement. “Their existence in the present age makes us feel many things: adoration, some sort of romantic emotion, a sense of unfruitfulness and languor from their excessiveness and vulgarity. And on the other hand, they make us feel tranquillity and awe that can almost be described as religious, as well as an image as an object of worship.”

“By citing such images, I feel that I am able to express an atmosphere that is a part of the complex world in this age. In fact, the several decorative styles and forms I cite simultaneously hold divine and vulgar meaning in the present age, having an irrational quality that contradict each other, which I feel expresses an important aspect in the contemporary age in which we live.”

Katsuyo Aoki’s detailed works have been shown across Japan in a number of solo exhibitions, and in numerous international group exhibitions across the world, such as in the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. •

Katsuyo Aoki: Dark Globe at Jason Jacques Gallery in New York, USA, from 21 January–21 February 2016.

Main image
Katsuyo Aoki. Predictive Dream XLVI (2014).
Porcelain. Size 27,5 x 26,5 x 35,5 cm.

Installation views
Katsuyo Aoki: Dark Globe. Jason Jacques Gallery, New York, USA. Photos Robert Cass.

Artwork images
Mareo Suemasa