En Iwamura’s ceramic sculptures burst with joyful contradiction — simultaneously channeling the primal energy of Japan’s prehistoric Jomon pottery while radiating the unfiltered creativity of a child’s imagination. His latest series of mask-like forms features exaggerated, cartoonish expressions: eyes bulging with wonder, tongues lolling in mischief, and mouths stretched into gleeful grimaces that seem to shift between laughter and primal screams. These tactile creations, built through coil techniques dating back 14,000 years, wear their handcrafted origins proudly, with visible fingerprints and intentional imperfections that celebrate the human touch in an age of sterile perfection.
The artist’s dual cultural perspective — born in Kyoto, educated in America — manifests in works that dance between tradition and rebellion. Iwamura’s masks reference Noh theater’s transformative power and African tribal art’s spiritual presence, yet their pastel glazes and pop-art sensibility feel utterly contemporary. Some stand as autonomous sculptures, while others incorporate functional elements like hidden incense chambers, allowing smoke to curl from nostrils or ears in a cheeky nod to ritual objects. This blending of sacred and silly creates a disarming tension, inviting us to reconsider how ancient art forms can speak in modern visual languages without losing their ancestral heartbeat.
What makes Iwamura’s work truly captivating is its infectious celebration of making. Each sculpture exudes the pleasure of clay squeezed between fingers, of an artist deeply engaged in physical creation. The pieces seem to giggle at their own existence, their wonky symmetry and deliberately clumsy features rejecting academic preciousness. In galleries, they become friendly gremlins — simultaneously guarding some ancient wisdom while sticking out their ceramic tongues at art world pretension. Iwamura proves that profound artistic expression needn’t be solemn; sometimes, the most powerful connections to tradition come through play.
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in Bahia. 