This piece has found its home. It is kept here as a record of what has passed through our hands.
A flower vase by Mihara Ken (b. 1958), built in his austere, multi-fired manner — form and colour drawn out of bare clay and repeated firings rather than any applied glaze. The quiet, geological surface is the whole point: it looks as though it was found rather than made.
Mihara's work is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which has two), the Victoria & Albert Museum, LACMA and some forty museums worldwide, and has reached five figures at international auction.
