Even If Contemporary Art Ended: Ceramics and Craft in Kyoto

The exhibition 'Even if Contemporary Art Ended' at Galerie Sokyo in Kyoto's Higashiyama district provocatively questions the future of contemporary art by foregrounding traditional ceramics and crafts. Curated by Takahiro Kaneshima, former director of Tokyo Art Fair and special advisor to the Tajimi ceramic festival, the show pairs ceramicists Kentaro Kawabata (b. 1976, Saitama) and Takuro Kuwata (b. 1981, Hiroshima) with plastic artists Satoru Aoyama (b. 1973, Tokyo) and Teppei Kaneuji (b. 1978, Kyoto). Kaneshima, who moved to Beijing in 2016 to direct its art fair, bridges Chinese and Japanese markets. Kawabata's nacreous, wave-like forms evoke naturalist spirituality, while Kuwata's porcelain works—cracked bowls, cubic forms studded with beads, and explosive stone-infused pieces—experiment with traditional constraints. Kaneuji coats plastic figurines in gesso, rendering them unrecognizable, and Aoyama's embroideries reference Aomori's dense, layered textiles, using phosphorescent thread. The exhibition argues for post-contemporary art rooted in endangered craft traditions.