PHOENIX, AZ.- This fall, Phoenix Art Museum (PhxArt) presents Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan, organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz Collection. The exhibition provides a unique opportunity to discover the technical achievements and creativity of leading women ceramicists from post-war Japan, highlighting their discovery of new possibilities for clay and its potential as a radical medium. Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan is on view at PhxArt from September 24, 2025 – August 9, 2026.

“It is a privilege for Phoenix Art Museum to present Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan,” said Jeremy Mikolajczak, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “Selected from the private collection of Carol and Jeffrey Horvitz, long-time supporters of Phoenix Art Museum, this exhibition highlights an incredible selection of innovative artists who have expanded the creative boundaries of ceramics as a medium. This is a rare opportunity to experience the technical advancement and innovation in contemporary Japanese art and complements the Museum’s historical works in the institution’s Asian Art Collection.”

Radical Clay celebrates the originality and virtuosity of 36 women artists from Japan who have explored sculptural expression outside the traditional field of Japanese studio ceramics since the 1970s.

The exhibition’s 40 avant-garde works are drawn from the Horvitz Collection, considered one of the leading collections of Japanese contemporary ceramics outside of Japan, and explore wide-ranging content and motifs, including the human body, geology, flora, and fantastical abstract forms. Through the evocative display, visitors discover an often-overlooked history of Japanese women artists who have made significant contributions to the traditionally male- dominated field of ceramics since World War II. Featured works demonstrate these artists’ bold approaches to form, color, and surface texture, as well as the ways in which they have resisted gendered expectations by working in so-called “masculine” modes while depicting traditionally “feminine” subjects, including in large scale. An example of one of these captivating works includes Erosion No. 4 Shokka (Eroding Flower) (2021) by Shingu Sayaka, whose floral sculpture aims to capture both the fragility and strength of nature and the medium of ceramics. Thin needles of clay, each shaped by hand, are gathered into tufts evocative of the inside of a flower, with somber colors that suggest a sense of decay and the passage of time.

“Visitors will see a wide sweep of sculptures in Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan, from the innovative to the expressive to the mysterious,” said Colin Pearson, Curator of Asian Art at Phoenix Art Museum. “The exhibition is a powerful opportunity to discover the many ways technically accomplished ceramicist —many of whom have long been overlooked in their field—have pushed the physical limits of the medium, stepping outside the conventional nature of working with clay despite societal and cultural expectations.”

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue published by the Art Institute of Chicago. It features contributions by Hollis Goodall, former Curator of Japanese Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Janice Katz, Roger L. Weston Associate Curator of Japanese Art.