Ceramics has been shaken up in a big way lately, as fine artists have embraced the discipline (long relegated to the outskirts) with enthusiasm. What most of these new converts seem to appreciate is the medium’s combination of tactility, painterly surface, and chance results produced in the kiln. But to really exploit these possibilities takes more than interest – it requires mastery. Perhaps it’s no surprise that the most convincing exponent of the tendency comes from Japan, in the person of Takuro Kuwata. Though still relatively young, he is deeply embedded in the nation’s great ceramic tradition – all the better to reinvent it, with bright Pop colors and metallic lusters, apocalyptic fissures, and great landslides of glaze. Kuwata is inspired by anime and other science fiction sources, which is fitting, for his works seem like ceramics of the future that have somehow landed in the present.