Join ISSS on July 28th from 12:00-1:00pm to explore the Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan exhibit at the Ackland Art Museum on UNC's campus. We will meet on the steps of the Ackland Art Museum at 12:00pm and enjoy a free self-guided tour through the exhibit together. 

Spouses, children, and friends are invited to attend. Please note formal childcare is not provided for this event.

Questions? Email isss@unc.edu

More about the exhibit:

“Examples by 36 individuals, from groundbreaking senior figures to emerging stars, positively flabbergast. This is work that must be seen to be believed.” — Chicago Tribune

Radical Clay celebrates thirty-six contemporary ceramic artists — all women — represented by works selected from the private collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz. All have explored the technical and conceptual possibilities of clay. The works in this exhibition are inventive and expressive, at times mysterious or even shocking. The artists who created them are among the most technically accomplished contemporary ceramists. Some began their careers several decades ago while others started more recently — and over the past fifty years they have, each in her distinctive way, produced sculpture that pushes the physical limits of the medium.

Women have long been involved in the production of ceramics in Japan. Within that male-dominated tradition, their participation was largely confined to menial aspects of the process, with access to materials and kilns severely restricted. But since 1970 many more women — including most of those represented here — have been accepted into prestigious art academies, leading to an explosion of work that is less bound by convention. These artists often create forms that emulate the infinite variety of nature, and some of them have developed painstaking, pioneering decorative methods.

Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago.

Click here to view a list of videos about some of the artists in Radical Clay, including interviews and studio footage.

Click here to explore a Reader’s Guide to accompany the Ackland Art Museum’s Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan Exhibition, a list of books by contemporary Japanese women authors selected by the Chapel Hill Public Library.