Shinya Tanoue

Shinya Tanoue (田上真也) was born in 1976 in Kyoto, Japan. He graduated from Doshisha University's Faculty of Theology in 1999 before turning to ceramics, completing the ceramics course at Kyoto Saga Art College in 2003; he has taught there as a lecturer since 2010. His practice centers on hand-built shell forms, developed since the mid-2000s from coiled clay worked upside down from the mouth, using three types of clay and two slips, with intricate surface carving and interiors finished in blue glaze. Many pieces are further finished with layered Urushi lacquer. Tanoue's work follows in the spirit of Kyoto's Sodeisha movement, which broke from utilitarian ceramic conventions after 1948. He has received awards at the International Ceramic Exhibition, Ceramic Park MINO, and the Japan Ceramic and Asahi Ceramic exhibitions, including a special judge's award selected by artist Yoshitomo Nara in 2017. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Kyoto, the Museum of Ceramic Art, Hyogo, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and other U.S. museums.