Posted on June 12, 2026
LOS ANGELES, CA — The Japan Foundation, Los Angeles (JFLA) is pleased to present two concurrent exhibitions opening on Thursday, June 18, 2026: KINETIC STILLNESS: Sculptural Ceramics Exhibition at Murasaki Hall, and Tea Ceremony with Pacific Plastics at the Courtyard Gallery.
Both exhibitions will remain on view through Saturday, September 19, 2026.
An opening reception for both exhibitions will be held on Thursday, June 18, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM.
The program of the evening will be featuring curator’s remarks, a mini demonstration by Amakusa porcelain artist Kenta Takaki visiting from Japan, and a tea ceremony demonstration at the newly installed tea house.
RSVP link for the opening reception is https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/v8vm2yh
Exhibition Hours
Monday–Friday, 12:00 to 6:00 PM
Saturday, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Closed Sundays and Holidays (June 19, July 3, 4, 20, August 11, and September 7)
KINETIC STILLNESS
Sculptural Ceramics Exhibition
MURASAKI HALL
Through the concept of kinetic stillness, this exhibition brings together seven Japanese and Japanese American artists who approach ceramics not as vessels for utility or tradition, but as sculptural sites of flux. Through bending, pressing, collapsing, and building, their works foreground the artists’ physicality and material processes, capturing the moment where form holds movement and stillness pulses with memory, while also pointing to a deeper temporal condition within clay itself. Each form bears the imprint of motion and history, embodying what we call kinetic stillness — an energy suspended in silence.
Rooted in geographically oriented Japanese ceramic traditions, some artists are heirs to centuries-old techniques, now pushing those methods toward abstraction or impermanence. Others are Japanese and Japanese American mixed media artists engaging in deep dialogue with the possibilities of clay among other materials.
Featured artists include Chie Fujii, Kazuya Ishida, Takashi Horisaki, Kuniko Kinoto, Rino Kodama, Kenta Takaki, and Shoshi Watanabe.
Curated by Kaoru Kuribayashi
Special thanks to a poco art and ATLA.
For more information and artists’ bio, please visit https://www.jflalc.org/event-details.php/357/kinetic-stillness-sculptural-ceramics
Tea Ceremony with Pacific Plastics
Tea House and Zen Garden Installation
COURTYARD GALLERY
What can Japanese tea ceremony teach us about ocean plastic pollution? Quite a lot, according to the art and research collective Tea Ceremony with Pacific Plastics.
Founded in 2022 by students and faculty at UCLA, this interdisciplinary initiative explores sustainability and oceanic plastic pollution through the cultural practice of chanoyu, commonly known in English as Japanese tea ceremony. Over the past three years, the collective has cultivated relationships with artists, designers, engineers, craftspeople, scholars, and cultural practitioners across California, Boston, and Japan.
Leading an interdisciplinary team, the collective has built a tea house from salvaged and recycled materials and developed tea-inspired performances that examine sustainability, local histories, and transnational cultural exchange across the Pacific Ocean.
This summer exhibition will showcase ocean-inspired tea utensils (dōgu) created in collaboration with various artists, an upcycled tea room (chashitsu), and a small Zen garden — Recycle Ryoan-ji by artist Judith Selby Lang — made entirely from shopping bags and salvaged ocean plastics.
The exhibition will also feature a series of Saturday public programs throughout the summer, including tea ceremony performances, hands-on workshops, and conversations with artists and tea practitioners from Los Angeles and beyond.
Featured artists include Hiro Chemers, Jonathan Yamakami, Nick Schick, Tyler Neufeld, Jacob Blum, Tomo Brais, Tanaka Hiroyuki (Tanaka Tatami), Yuko Ito, Judith Selby Lang, Utalay Studio (Ko Sukon), and more.
Tea Ceremony with Pacific Plastics is a UCLA-based interdisciplinary research initiative that uses chanoyu as a lens to explore histories of East-West cultural exchange and contemporary ecological issues in the Pacific Ocean. In May 2024, the collective held a series of debut events at the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television, followed by pop-up performances at galleries and organizations throughout Los Angeles. The group is currently completing design and fabrication for a prospective second installation in 2027.
PI: Michelle Liu Carriger
Curator: Aldo Schwartz
For more information and artists’ bio, please visit https://www.jflalc.org/event-details.php/361/tea-ceremony-with-pacific-plastics