NEW YORK.- From March 20 through April 26, 2008, Barry Friedman Ltd., in conjunction with Joan B. Mirviss Ltd., will present an exhibition of approximately 50 new and recent works by artist Takahiro Kondo. The exhibition will feature the latest additions to Kondo’s celebrated Orkney Monolith series, which incorporate his unique gintekisai (“silver mist”) overglaze and luminous layers of cast glass, as well as presenting his latest work, a large-scale wall piece entitled Oil & Water, which has never been shown outside Japan. An opening reception will be held March 20, 2008 at Barry Friedman Ltd.’s new Chelsea location, 515 West 26th Street.

The Orkney Monolith series, on view for the first time in the United States, is comprised of works that recall the ancient standing stones found throughout Scotland’s Orkney Islands. These monumental works reflect Kondo’s long-standing fascination with water as a theme in both decorative technique and concept. Water in its different states suggests the mutability of nature as well as its beauty. The recycling of water as it evaporates, rains, and freezes highlights the passage of time, another major theme in Kondo’s work. His works have a spiritual dimension that originate from his Japanese cultural heritage, but the concerns he voices about the effects of man’s intervention in the environment, particularly in his newest work, Oil & Water, have broader ramifications.

Each piece in the Orkney Monolith series stands between 4½ and 6½ feet in height and is covered with Kondo’s distinctive gintekisai overglaze. This technique coats the porcelain surface with tiny droplets of a precious alloy of gold, silver, and platinum (representing “water out of fire”), which catch and refract light, mimicking the appearance of rain-drenched stone. The use of underglazes in shades of blue, black, green, and white further the aquatic feeling, as do the thick cast glass blocks—clear glass, as well as in opaque, sea glass shades of cobalt, emerald, black, and white—that are integrated into the porcelain structure.

Oil & Water incorporates fleece on wood, gintekisai on stainless steel, and petroleum ash pigment, marking a significant shift in media for Kondo. The work, which stretches approximately 10 feet in length, juxtaposes water with oil, another commodity that can exist in multiple states and plays a significant role in the world economy, as well as driving political and social imperatives. In the left section, Oil is represented by two wooden panels covered with fleece that has been colored black with pigment made from petroleum ash (which Kondo produces himself by reducing oil to ash). Connecting these two rectangles are thin, horizontal strips of stainless steel, covered with “silver mist” glaze, suggesting water droplets. The right portion of the work is also comprised of these steel strips, although these are arranged vertically. The contrast between solid and permeable, dark and light, “fire” and “water,” creates tension and invites contemplation.

Also on view will be other examples of wall plaques, as well as smaller-scale tabletop objects, including boxes and other works exhibiting his gintekisai technique, a number of which also incorporate glass.

Kondo (b. 1958) was born into the refined world of traditional Kyoto blue-and-white porcelain. His grandfather, Yuzo Kondo (1902-1985) was named a Living National Treasure in 1977 for his work in sometsuke, or underglaze cobalt blue decoration. Despite this weighty heritage, Kondo—a national school league table-tennis champion as a student, who studied literature at Hosei University (Tokyo)—did not come to ceramics until 1986. He completed courses at Kyoto Prefectural Ceramics Training School and Kyoto Municipal Technical Institute, where he studied design, pigments, and glazes. While Kondo’s early ceramics followed the more traditional sometsuke ornamentation favored by his grandfather, he quickly established his own independent artistic identity, developing his gintekisai technique and experimenting with new media, particularly metal and cast glass.

His work has been exhibited at museums and galleries throughout the world, including The São Paulo Museum of Art, Brazil; National Museums of Scotland; and the Palace Museum, Beijing, where the three generations of the Kondo family were among the first foreigners to be so honored. Kondo’s works are represented in many private and public collections including the Brooklyn Museum of Art; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge; Rhode Island School of Design; Royal Museum of Scotland; Minneapolis Institute of Art; Paramita Museum (Mie, Japan); and the Museum of Arts and Design (New York). Born in Kyoto, Kondo still resides and works there in what was his grandfather’s original studio and compound in the hills of Yamashina, although both studio and house have now been updated and expanded to accommodate the current generation’s needs and aspirations.