EXHIBI­TIONS

MIQUEL BARCELÓ

Fergus McCaffrey Tokyo is proud to present our first exhibition with the renowned Spanish artist Miquel Barceló. The exhibition features 14 works produced in 2023 in collaboration with ceramic artist Kazuya Furutani. Barcelóʼs work exhibits a raw and rugged expression that captures the immediacy of gesture, addressing timeless and universal human concerns with the cycle of life, the wonder of nature, the presence of myth, and the meaning of human existence. Traveling extensively in Africa and Asia since his youth, he has studied and learned from ancient traditions such as Dogon in Mali and Jomon in Japan; with this knowledge, he has established his unique style in painting, ceramic, and sculpture which demonstrates a rugged authority and materiality. Given Barcelóʼs intense and prolific production of ceramics, an encounter with the rich traditions of Japanese pottery was a natural extension of his practice, and a post-pandemic meeting with the renowned Shigaraki potter Kazuya Furutani opened the door to Barcelóʼs engagement with that 800-year-old ceramic tradition. Working together in the studio, Barceló and Furutani executed more than 40 hand-coiled vessels and flat panel works in which Furutani would provide traditional Shigaraki forms for Barceló to transform before the clay dried or became too brittle. The works were then subject to the unpredictable alchemical transformation of traditional Shigaraki firing, overseen by Furutani.

FERGUS MCCAFFREY

Founded in 2006, Fergus McCaffrey is internationally recognized for its promotion of postwar and contemporary art from Japan, Europe, and the United States. The gallery runs a multifaceted program and represents 24 artists and estates worldwide.

Fergus McCaffrey has locations in Tokyo, New York, and St. Barth. The gallery opened its Tokyo outpost in March 2018 with a show of paintings by Robert Ryman and has since exhibited such artists as Matthew Barney, Jasper Johns, Shigeko Kubota, Carolee Schneemann, Richard Serra, Kazuo Shiraga, and Min Tanaka.