Masayoshi Oya at Vandalorum

There is a subtle contradiction at the heart of Masayoshi Oya’s work. His vessels, typically cylinders and bowls thrown on the wheel with a discipline honed across decades, are essentially modest forms, yet their surfaces erupt in vivid, striking colour. This tension connects in some ways to the ceramist’s own biography: a Tokyo-born artist who has become one of Sweden’s most distinctive voices in contemporary craft.

Tales of the Hand, Oya’s extensive solo exhibition at Vandalorum, running January 24 through May 5, 2026, offers the most ambitious survey of his practice to date. The show spans new ceramic works, glass, sketches, and textiles, and is anchored by an animation made in collaboration with British artist Ben Baker — a piece conceived specifically for Vandalorum that takes viewers inside Oya’s creative process.

His artistic process, Oya has said, is meditative — the whole body works, the brain and hands in direct contact with the clay. Those hands tell a story of two cultures. Oya trained first in Japan, where ceramics education in the early 2000s demanded rigorous technical mastery and left little room for personal expression. Then, in 2007, he moved to Vickleby on the island of Öland to study under Kennet Williamsson at Capellagården, the legendary Swedish craft school, where he encountered a radically different philosophy — one that prized individual voice as much as technical skill. He went on to complete a master’s degree at HDK-Valand in Gothenburg, the city where he has remained ever since.

The exhibition features a mix of functional ware and art objects, all of which show the artist’s painterly approach. In some works, Oya pairs simple shapes with playful, graphic glazing — hand-working cylinders, cups, and plates into porcelain canvases. Think bold brushwork, patterns that carry echoes of both Nordic folk motifs and Japanese calligraphic tradition, colliding in something entirely his own. Other pieces are more sculptural, independent objects.  “Ceramics hold incredible possibilities. With them, I can create different feelings, surfaces, and objects—from practical items to art. I make simple forms and combine them with the glaze’s unpredictable behaviour. It’s like painting on canvas,” Masayoshi Oya states.

The exhibition design plays into this contrast of simplicity and boldness that comes through Oya’s work. The vessels and objects are arranged across a long shelf and on a large circular platform that rests on the floor, both of which are painted in a vibrant turquoise-meets-sea-green colour, as are two benches that invite visitors to sit and contemplate the installation.

The exhibition at Vandalorum is accompanied by a catalogue featuring a conversation between Oya and the celebrated Swedish potter Ingegerd Råman — a pairing that itself speaks volumes about the esteem in which Oya is held. He has been recognized for an artistic practice that unites curiosity and sensuality, transforming ceramic vessels into concentrated poetic statements.

Tales of the Hand is a fitting title. In Oya’s world, the hand is not merely a tool. It is the place where two cultures, two educations, and two lives have slowly, irreversibly fused. The exhibition runs through May 5, 2026.

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