Incollect Magazine - Issue 3

Incollect Magazine 93 2022 Ryo Toyonaga Moderne Gallery Ryo Toyonaga treats ceramics as a sculptural art form, or more specifically, uses clay as a medium through which to explore and express personal aesthetic goals. Moving from Japan to the U.S in 1986, he has worked in clay but has produced drawings as well as sculptures in wax, papier-mache, bronze and aluminum casting. He draws all his inspiration from the unconscious mind, with no preparatory drawings or designs, which accounts for the amorphous nature of his frequently unglazed sculptural forms. His sculptures are “an improvisation of sorts,” says Robert Aibel. “Each aspect of the sculpture is enacted (not decided upon) in the moment, so that they are living expressions of his unconscious mind at the very instant that he’s working on them.” “It’s clear to me from looking at Dena Zemsky’s work that her strongest influence is nature itself, but she goes far beyond that,” says Paul Donzella about her hand built, somewhat brutalist ceramics in irregular forms (resembling bowls, vases or cups) made of glazed ceramics with incised lines and patterned holes or relief decoration. Her vessels demonstrate not only tremendous technical skill but strong attention to singular coloration as the result of a deft manipulation of her overlapping glazes. “Somehow she manages to avoid making them appear busy,” says Donzella. “Instead there is a clean and mature feeling to her work.” Dena Zemsky Donzella