(Above: Detail from Connie Mueller’s, Pedona, Italy)
By Randi Bjornstad
The good news is that there’s another week for ceramics enthusiasts to see the creations of Tetsuya and Momoko Otani, an artist couple from Shigaraki, Japan, which is one of a half-dozen places considered to be “historic pottery sites” in that nation.
The bad news? Well, there really isn’t any bad news, except that the Otani exhibit’s last day at the White Lotus Gallery in downtown Eugene will be Sept. 3, 2022. But that means it still will be on display through the gallery’s regular Tuesday through Saturday hours plus extended hours — until 8 p.m. — during the First Friday ArtWalk event in downtown Eugene, on Sept. 2.
For more good news, the White Lotus Gallery’s other current exhibit, Distant Lands, Enchanting Sights, will continue for another month, through Oct. 1. That show includes work by six artists represented by the gallery — Rich Bergeman, Jon Jay Cruson, Satoko Motouji, Connie Mueller, Jamie Newton, and Gary Tepfer — with pieces whose ideas originated during each of their travels abroad.
In addition, Distant Lands, Enchanting Sights also will include artwork by others whose work is part of the White Lotus Gallery collection, including prints and paintings by Jun’ichiro Sekino, Xuesheng He, and Chang-Ae Song.
Taken all together — and given the severe curtailment of travel for most people during the past two-plus pandemic years — the gallery hopes to offer viewers a sense of journey to other places without leaving its own four walls.
To achieve that, the exhibit includes a variety of subjects, including rural landsapes, city scenes, and portraits.
Tetsuya Otani’s footed bowls
The ceramics in the Otani collection also vary. The artists founded their studio in 2008, and Tetsuya Otani’s work features smooth, white wheel-thrown porcelain pieces with soft edges and surfaces.
Momoko Otani grew up in a family of potters, and her pieces derive from richly colored local clays, often augmented with hand-painting or a scratched surface called sgrafitto, which is created applying two surfaces of different colors to the same piece, then etching through the top surface to reveal a pattern in the underneath color.
The couple’s art has been shown widely not only in Japan, but also in China, Taiwan, Australia, and in the United States, in addition to Eugene in New York, Seattle, and Portland.
White Lotus Gallery
Address: 767 Willamette St., Eugene
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday
Information: 541-345-3276 or online at wlotus.com
Jamie Newton’s view of the snowy Alps
