‘East Asia in Delft’: a group exhibition with ceramics and drawings from a variety of Asian artists.
Since 2011, Simone Haak and Joke Doedens of Terra Delft Gallery have traveled regularly to China and in particular to Jingdezhen, the city of porcelain. Jingdezhen is a breeding-ground for artists, art dealers, and buyers. The city has a ceramics university with 20,000 students and a wide selection of shops for ceramic supplies, galleries, studios and factories. In this setting, the Delft gallery owners have met many international artists and maintained contact with them, resulting in the present exhibition.
The participation of the artists in this exhibition is a product of these contacts and experiences in China. Their work is diverse; comprising drawings and statues, vases and platters. Asian elements can be seen in the pieces through the use of porcelain, celadon glaze and the raku firing technique. There are depictions of fantastic or mythical figures. It is a true adventure to see all of this work together.
Ceramics has been present in all cultures since time immemorial, and its local use in objects and functional pieces has developed in different ways. Despite the enormous influence of social media, which has made the world so much smaller, the expressive forms and techniques in the ceramics of different cultures are still quite distinctive. This is what makes this exhibition so interesting.
Ceramics from a different background are not always easy to fathom; one has to be receptive to them. Talents which are valued and recognized as self-evident within their own culture may not be immediately recognized as such by us in Delft. This is why it is good to take the time to look, ask questions, and seek comparisons with the ceramics which we are already familiar with – in a rich variation of refined, abstract, applied, minimalist, and effusive. In sum, this is an intriguing exhibition, with its origins in friendship and respect.
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