The White
Exhibtion at Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto
Coco Chanel once declared that the beauty of white is absolute, while the American architect Richard Meier observed that white is the most wondrous of colors, for within it lie all the hues of the rainbow—a conviction he carried into the white masterpieces he built. It is in this spirit that The White, a new exhibition at Sokyo Gallery in Kyoto, takes shape.
The exhibition draws its inspiration from The White Book, by novelist Han Kang. In this autobiographical story on the death of her baby sister, the author uses a narrative on the color white to discuss grief, loss, and the fragile nature of the human spirit. Kang describes white objects such as rice, sugar cubes, salt, ice, blank paper symbolizing renewal.
Assembled from the gallery’s collection, the exhibition brings together ceramic works by some of the most compelling artists working in clay today, in Japan and abroad. Each has turned to white not merely as a color but as a vessel of profound duality—holding within it life and death, loss and renewal, purification and hope, all at once.
Taking these symbolic qualities as its point of departure, The White invites visitors into a space of contemplation, attuned to the deeper nature of human existence. At a moment when war and uncertainty continue to shape our world, the exhibition comes to ofer a space for reflection—on the preciousness of life, and on the possibility of hope for what is yet to come.
