Parting Shot: Kanagawa Redux
When artist Ed Bing Lee was approached by Morgan Contemporary Glass Gallery to create a work for its 5th invitational “teapots!” show, he jumped at the idea. “I knew I could do a regular teapot,” he remembers thinking, “but if you look at something and it leads you to something else, that’s what I like.” The result? “Wave at Kanagawa,” an 8x8x8-inch teapot created from hemp, waxed linen and embroidery floss—a vibrant, almost kinetic three-dimensional work that pays tribute to 19th-century Japanese printmaker Katsushika Hokusai’s “Great Wave Off Kanagawa.”
More than 50 artists were tapped to participate in this year’s show, with teapots ranging from the ridiculous (Robert Mickelsen’s flameworked glass “Grand New Party”) to the sublime (the exquisitely constructed mixed-media “Amaranth Blossom” by Charissa Brock). The show runs through June 11, but if you can’t make it to Pittsburgh, a downloadable PDF version of the full catalog will remain up indefinitely at Morgan Contemporary’s website www.morganglassgallery.com.
- “Wave at Kanagawa” is based on Katsushika Hokusai’s “Grave Wave Off Kanagawa, inset.
- “Cranes,” another teapot by Ed Bing Lee, draws inspiration from a screen print by Ogata Korin.
