I grew up in Japan’s lost generation, a time of collapse and uncertainty. The chaos and softness in my ceramic sculptures reflect that emotional atmosphere. My work is about contradiction: glossy but grotesque, joyful but unstable. I want my sculptures to feel like puberty—loud, awkward, vulnerable, and trying to hide it all with too much colour.Kazuhito Kawai
Kazuhito Kawai (b. 1984, Ibaraki, Japan) is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary ceramics.
He initially studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London (BA Hons, 2007), before returning to Japan to specialize in ceramics at the Ibaraki Prefectural College of Ceramics, graduating in 2018. Today, he lives and works in Ibaraki, at the heart of Japan’s historic ceramic region.
He initially studied Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London (BA Hons, 2007), before returning to Japan to specialize in ceramics at the Ibaraki Prefectural College of Ceramics, graduating in 2018. Today, he lives and works in Ibaraki, at the heart of Japan’s historic ceramic region.
Kawai’s sculptural practice radically reimagines the potential of clay. Characterised by their chaotic textures, cascading forms, and fluorescent, high-gloss glazes, his works are physically overwhelming yet emotionally intimate. Using unconventional tools—needles, tea strainers, food net lids—he gives the clay a nervous, eruptive energy, breaking from the traditional ceramic canon.
Deeply influenced by his identity as part of Japan’s “lost generation,” Kawai’s work evokes instability, adolescent vulnerability, and the grotesque in equal measure. His vibrant colour palettes—turquoise, pink, acid yellow—are rooted in memories of youth, while the amorphous, lava-like structures suggest both growth and collapse. Each piece is emotionally autobiographical, and his intuitive method is grounded in a continuous dialogue with the material: a back-and-forth between impulse, emotion, and form.
Kawai has exhibited widely across Japan, Europe, and the United States. Notable solo presentations include The Kitsch(t.gallery, Tokyo), Show Me with LOOP feeling (Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto), and Full Frontal Naked Circulator (Mitsukoshi Contemporary Art Gallery, Tokyo). He has participated in major art fairs including Frieze Los Angeles, Art Basel Miami Beach, and Art Kyoto. His work is part of prominent public and private collections, including the Takahashi Collection.