Masaomi Yasunaga: Traces of Memory

A major exhibition devoted to the experimental ceramicist Masaomi Yasunaga opens at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, on view December 2 through March 22. Masaomi Yasunaga: Traces of Memory marks the artist’s first major U.S. museum presentation and brings together recent works alongside a new site-specific installation that underscores the radical materiality of his practice.

Trained under Satoru Hoshino of the Sodeisha movement, a lineage known for breaking from traditional forms, Yasunaga extends this spirit of innovation through an approach that reimagines the foundations of ceramics. Rather than shaping clay in conventional ways, he employs Tebineri hand-building techniques using glazes mixed with minerals, rocks, metals and glass powders. During firing, the works are buried in sand or unrefined porcelain, a process that stabilizes the forms and creates unpredictable transformations. Once unearthed from their kiln beds, the pieces emerge with a texture and presence that feel both geological and otherworldly, revealing surfaces that appear excavated rather than crafted.

The exhibition surveys the breadth of this alchemical process, presenting sculptural works whose cracked, encrusted exteriors evoke fragments of ancient objects or artifacts yet to be uncovered. A site-specific installation further immerses visitors in Yasunaga’s world, highlighting the interplay between environment, material and memory that defines his work.

Yasunaga (b. 1982, Osaka) lives and works in Iga-shi, Mie Prefecture, and his work is represented in international collections including the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Musée Ariana in Geneva; and the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Masaomi Yasunaga: Traces of Memory is organized by ICA Miami and curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director, and Amanda Morgan, Associate Curator.