Art + Artists

In his large-scale ceramic sculptures, Tomoo Kitamura carves patterns into stoneware clay to produce texture that is both visual and tactile. Not intended to be perfect, clean or comfortable, the forms are designed to evoke feelings of space, life and beauty. Interested in capturing this same feeling and surface in a two-dimensional format, Kitamura has recently turned to abstract oil painting, where he builds a surface with layers of paint, only to scrape them away. During his residency, Kitamura will explore the relationship between his paintings and sculptures to develop a cohesive body of work. Japanese-born Kitamura has exhibited his work throughout the United States, including the Mint Museum of Art, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Smithsonian Craft Show, and has been published in Ceramics Monthly.