Atsumi Fujita lives in Brooklyn NY and since receiving her Master’s degree from Pratt Institute has been active in the New York art scene, She has organized and curated several shows in and around Manhattan focusing on sculptural ceramics that go beyond traditional concepts of ceramic art.

You’ve been the curator on several ceramics shows in and around New York and recently you had a show during NCECA in Portland. How did that work out?
I thought I would be in Portland for a couple of weeks but I took a job at a gallery in New York so I was in Portland only to set up and take down the show.

The title of the show was “Bodies of Clay: Am I Weird?” How did you pick that title?
At the last minute the gallery for my show canceled. So Nel Bannier, she was my teacher and now friend, asked me to combine my show with hers since my theme addressed weirdness that came from within the body. Nel’s show was “Bodies of Clay” and mine was “Am I Weird?” My original title was “I am Weird”, but some artists and Nel thought it was too strong. So, I switched it to a question and put the “?” in the title. That’s why there are two titles.

Are you weird?
Maybe. I think everybody is a little weird. Weirdness makes people more interesting. So, on some level, I think I’m weird.

You’re from Japan where there is a rich tradition of functional ceramics but little figurative and pure sculptural ceramics since maybe the haniwa. Where did your interest in figurative and pure sculptural work come from?
I spent most of my youth in Iga, one of the old kiln communities in Japan, and was raised in a ceramics environment. My father is an art dealer focusing on Japanese ceramic wares and my mother practices chanoyu (tea ceremony). I love functional ceramics that are created from the aesthetics of use. Functional ceramics add freshness, like having flowers in my room, and gracefulness to my daily life. When I think about the contemporary art scene, functional ceramics address a very different aesthetic today. I‘ve seen many interesting sculptural ceramics that represent different conceptual approaches since I came to the US. I think sculptural ceramics free the traditional idea of ceramics. I had hardly seen sculptural ceramics in Japan when I was younger, and I really got into it. The haniwa were made for ritual purposes and since our ceramic history focused on functional beauty we didn’t make much purely sculptural ceramic. Sculptural work in the US may also be using some ritualized forms and cultural icons to express concepts and some sculptural ceramicists seem to have chosen this form of expression to be recognized as “artists”.

And not as potters?
Exactly.

Why should people view this work differently?
The approach to ceramics is different in Japan and the United States. Ceramics is appreciated as high art in Japan, but it is considered a craft in the United States. Also, the definition of craft is different in Japan and the US. So, artists who want to go beyond craft are expressing emotions or concepts that rely less on the pure elements of craft which themselves don’t carry artistic value.

How was the work received?
I think very well. Many people were interested in the work. For example, Keith Renner showed work in which he fused concrete and porcelain that broke open large cracks during firing. He had three pieces and each was sold. But one other collector didn’t want to pay the asking price so those sales didn’t work out.

What do you see as trends in ceramic art?
Many ceramic artists are making sculptural work that does not use traditional methods. They don’t use glaze, for example, but add paint and ink to get a specific effect. And there is more mixed media where clay is combined with metal, wood, paper, etc.

Isn’t this trend also in the way ceramic artists are taught?
Especially in Japan ceramic education often focuses on technique first and this limits students’ creativity because ceramics is taught with specific techniques. To my way of thinking, ceramic is one material an artist can use to express an idea, emotion or concept and then only when it makes sense.

Artistic expression becomes the important criteria then?
For sculptural ceramics, I don’t expect to see everything made of clay and glaze. Artists need more ways to create what they want to express than what’s available in clay and glaze.

Will you have more shows coming up?
I want to have a show that will have one figurative ceramic artist and one figurative sculptural artist: one using only clay and the other using casting techniques with resin. I want people to be a little confused and have their ideas and assumptions challenged by not knowing immediately what is clay and what is something else.

So are you on a bit of a crusade?
My goal is to merge the gap between ceramics and contemporary art.