Posted on June 12, 2026
Exhibition: Tōgei: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics
On View: June 13, 2026–January 3, 2027
Reception: June 13, 2026, 4:00–6:00 pm • Opening Remarks @ 4:30 pm
Location: American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA), Pomona, CA
(Pomona, California–May 12, 2026) Opening June 13, 2026, Tōgei: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics explores Japan’s ceramic tradition and traces its evolution from functional wares to modern artistic expression.
Tōgei is curated by Hollis Goodall, who served as Curator of Japanese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for over four decades.
Works ranging from tea utensils and flower vessels to non-functional, contemporary sculpture highlight how post-1940s potters experimented with form, glaze, and concept, some blending wabi-sabi aesthetics with contemporary design.
The exhibition also shows how Japanese cultural practices such as the tea ceremony, ikebana, and cuisine have made their way into Western spaces and design trends.
Featuring pieces by artists including Suzuki Gorō, Hamada Shōji, and Yagi Kazuo, the exhibition traces a modernist renaissance in ceramics, including contributions from women artists who, in the postwar era, have gained opportunities to train at art universities.
Tōgei marks the first major modern Japanese ceramics exhibition in eastern Los Angeles County in fifty years.
Curator Hollis Goodall explains, “Drawing on collections across Southern California, this exhibition presents a snapshot of modern Japanese ceramics. Objects from private and public collections, seldom on view, reflect each collector’s or institutional donor’s taste, presenting a broad spectrum of contemporary ceramic practice in Japan and providing viewers with an introduction to the vast field of contemporary Japanese ceramic production.
Visitors will see how the artists are expanding the possibilities of the ceramic medium through inventive formal strategies, careful attention to functional ergonomics, and sculptural explorations.”
Executive Director Beth Ann Gerstein shares, “This exhibition offers an opportunity to look closely and slowly. Ceramic works reward sustained attention: the trace of a hand, the unpredictability of the kiln, the tension between fragility and strength. In an age defined by speed and digital immediacy, the objects presented in Tōgei instead invite us to consider time—geologic, generational, and personal.”
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog featuring full color images and new contextual essays by Hollis Goodall.
Tōgei: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics will be on view in the Julianne and David Armstrong Gallery at AMOCA June 13, 2026-January 3, 2027.
Complementing the in-person exhibition experience, numerous public and educational programs will be mounted, including lectures, conversations, college-level tours, and tours for Title 1 schools serving grades K-12.
Exhibition Credits
Tōgei: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics is guest curated by Hollis Goodall, who served as curator of Japanese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for over four decades. In addition to her work at LACMA, Goodall has contributed to publications for institutions including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Munakata Museum in Kamakura, Japan. She has lectured extensively, including at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; Nippon Club, New York; Hammer Museum; Pacific Asia Museum, Pasadena; Antiquarian Society of Southern California; New York University; University of Kansas; California State University, San Diego; Cal Poly Pomona; Hamilton Art Gallery, Melbourne; and the Art Gallery of Victoria, Australia.
The museum extends its sincere thanks to the following lenders for loaning works for the exhibition: American Museum of Ceramic Art Permanent Collection, Anonymous, Gordon Brodfuehrer, Ruth and Richard Dickes, Priscilla and Nelson Gibbs, Nick Hamatake and Ken Mariash, Raulee Marcus, Mingei International Museum, Scripps College, and Chris Walther and Susan Stockton.
This exhibition is part of Craft in America’s Handwork: Celebrating American Craft 2026, a nationwide Semiquincentennial initiative to showcase the importance of the handmade, both throughout our history and in contemporary life.
AMOCA thanks our exhibition Presenting Sponsors: Raulee Marcus and Suzy and John Sasaki.
This exhibition is funded, in part, by grants from the Dew Foundation, the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Windgate Foundation, and by support from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.