Gumpu Nakamura

Gumpu Nakamura

Kutani ware · Experimental glazes · Ishikawa, Japan

Gumpu Nakamura came to ceramics by way of biology, and never quite left the laboratory behind. "Pottery is science," as he puts it: he develops his own glazes rather than buying them, mixing color to one hundred-thousandth of a gram and adjusting firing temperature a single degree at a time.

Working in Ishikawa, he approaches Kutani ware as both art and experiment, pursuing colors and textures that conventional ceramic materials could not produce. After more than 25 years of research, he developed a deep-red vitreous glaze with a distinctive depth and luminosity.