Pottery Page 1 | Page 2

Shiro OTANI: A Ceramics Monthly Portfolio

Shiro OTANI began his studies at the Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts under Kyubei Kiyomizu, Eiichi Shohu and Kunio Uchida. In 1973 Otani moved to Kinose Dairino in Shigaraki and built an anagama and a noborigama (climbing kiln). In Shigaraki, he studied under Uichi Shimizu a "living national treasure." In 1990 Otani was designated as an intangible cultural asset of Shigaraki.

Otani has taught and worked as an artist-in-residence at institutions throughout the world, including Arrowmont, New York State University, West Georgia College, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.

He is the recipient of the Governor's Award at Shiga Prefectural Art Exhibition and the Fifth Japan Crafts Association's Kinki Exhibition Award, as well as a past participant in the 16th and 20th Exhibitions of Japanese Traditional Arts and Crafts. He was a member of the committee that arranged the Shigaraki World Pottery Festival in 1989.

Otani has had many solo exhibitions in Japan including Takashimaya (in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Okayama), Seibu (in Ikebukuro, Yurakucho), Meitetsu, Osaka Mitsukoshi, and the Minami Aoyama Green Gallery.

In the United States Otani's work has been collected by The Fogg Museum at Harvard University, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Exhibitions have been held in New York City and at the Embassy of Japan Culture Center in Washington D.C.

ArtistPotters