Kaikai Kiki Gallery

From January 24th to February 6th, 2020, Kaikai Kiki Gallery is pleased to present a ceramics exhibition by Japanese artist Ryutaro Yamada.

After exhibiting at Oz Zingaro in Nakano Broadway in February 2018, Yamada is back again with his first solo show at Kaikai Kiki Gallery.

During the exhibition, we will be displaying and selling over 500 of his latest pieces gathered from his studio in Sagamihara. We invite you to come experience the beauty of Yamada’s work infused with the power of clay which forms part of the overwhelming richness of mother nature.

Message from the Artist

It has been more than ten years since I began creating ceramics. I began as my wife wanted to attend a ceramics course and casually invited me to come along. It was right around the time when I was diagnosed with a disease, lost all my hair becoming completely bald and almost gave up on life at the age of twenty or so.

I guess making ceramics fitted my personality because I became engrossed immediately. I even started to believe that to grind, fire, and sell my ceramics in recluse was the only path I had left.

Then, a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to view the works of the late Ryo Aoki at his residence in former Fujino Town. During my visit, his wife asked if I wanted to use the space because it was vacant. So I decided to move.

I carried on like that, supported by coincidental encounters and the meaning of living alone without human contact slowly faded. Lately, whenever I get lonely living in a house in a forest, I go to the convenience store and talk to the lady at the register, then go back to grinding, firing, and selling.