Kensuke Yamada Visiting Artist Workshop | Office for the Arts at Harvard

Semester: Summer

Year offered: 2024

ceramic sculpture by Kensuke Yamada of a human figure with a stick for shoulders and hands hanging from chains and bolts coming out of the ears. The left leg is also a stick with a foot on it.

WAITLISTEDSaturday and Sunday June 15-16, 202410:00am - 5:00pm each day
Ceramics Program, Office for the Arts at Harvard

This workshop offers a unique opportunity to study directly with an internationally recognized maker of narrative ceramic sculpture. In this two-day workshop, participants will explore narrative figure sculpture with renowned ceramic artist Kensuke Yamada. Using coil building and other handbuilding techniques, participants will construct figurative sculptures in stoneware clay. Through demonstrations and individual critiques, Yamada will share his process of imbuing ceramic figures with nuanced narratives that comment on the human experience. Students will learn techniques for sculpting realistic yet poetic details and surfaces that enhance emotional resonance. The workshop will focus on capturing fleeting moments and subtle interactions to provoke reflection in viewers.

Cost: Free for Harvard College Undergraduates, $250 for Adult Community and Harvard Graduate students.
Those not enrolled in an in-person course at the Ceramics Program for the Summer 2024 term may choose to have pieces created during the workshop bisque fired by the Ceramics Program for a cost of 6 cents per cubic inch.

Registration will open on Thursday, April 18, 2024 at 2:00pm

Please review our cancellation/refund policy.

Artist Bio:

Kensuke Yamada (b. 1979) was born in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan. He received his MFA from the University of Montana in 2009 and has a BA from The Evergreen State College, in Olympia, Washington. Yamada has participated in artist residency programs at The Archie Bray Foundation (Montana) and The Clay Studio Philadelphia (Philadelphia). He was also visiting artist at Tyler School of Art and Architecture and University of Arkansas (Fayetteville) and was an invited guest to make a sculpture at Chihuly Inc (Washington). His work is included in the permanent collections of the Missoula Art Museum (Montana), Safeco Insurance (Washington), and the Bellevue Club (Washington).

"With clay I look for sculptural conversations that evoke the beauty, the subtleties, the sadness and the humor of our everyday life. In viewing my sculpture I hope for people to enjoy the moment, rather then the movement of time. I hope for my work to fill the space between two seemingly distant things, to prodvide a connection and thus create the story of you and me."