🗓️ Wednesday, July 15, 2026-Sunday, January 3, 2027
🕰️ 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays-Sundays
📍 Seattle Asian Art Museum: 1400 East Prospect Street, Seattle
🎟️ $0-$14.99
The family business? Clay.
Experience the dynamic ceramics of Kondō Takahiro, an innovative Japanese sculptor, alongside artworks from incredible ceramicists in his bloodline: his grandfather Kondō Yūzō, father Kondō Hiroshi, uncle Kondō Yutak and their influential teacher Tomimoto Kenkichi.
Old school meets new moves in “The Kondō Family: Storytellers in Clay,” which celebrates how each ceramist took the family style in new directions. More than 60 artworks — from wheel-thrown vases covered in intricate brushwork to sculpted ceramic heads brought to life with metallic glaze — offer a history of family and form, balancing tradition and innovation in exciting ways.
Though grounded in the medium of porcelain and “sometsuke” — the widely-recognized hand-painting cobalt technique that Yūzō established as the family’s style — Takahiro’s work often uses his signature “silver mist,” a proprietary technique that blends silver, gold, platinum and glass to create a metallic glaze that mimics water droplets. His art is also known for its responsiveness to society and nature, and his belief in the power of art to affect change, particularly in his “Reduction” series.
Thanks to Takahiro’s practice today, the family legacy continues to evolve. Don’t miss “The Kondō Family: Storytellers in Clay,” a boundary-pushing exhibition rooted in tradition and shaped by innovation.
With three dynamic locations, Seattle Art Museum has been the center for visual arts in the Pacific Northwest since 1933.
