The Kondo Family: Storytellers in Clay

The Seattle Asian Art Museum showcases a century of Japanese ceramic artistry with 'The Kondo Family: Storytellers in Clay,' opening July 15 and on view through the end of 2026. The exhibition features 60 works by four members of the Kondo family across three generations, highlighting both traditional techniques and artistic innovation, from painted porcelain vessels to contemporary sculptural creations. The show begins with the work of Kondo Yuzo, designated a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government in 1977 for his mastery of sometsuke, a blue-and-white porcelain technique, and devotes significant attention to contemporary artist Kondo Takahiro, whose work examines nature, human resilience and environmental change. 'Each artist pays respect to tradition and family legacy by challenging it and pushing at its edges,' said Aaron Rio, the museum's Tateuchi Foundation curator of Japanese and Korean art.