Peter Hamann's elegant and refined ceramic works draw heavily from Asian culture. He permanently resides about an hour outside Osaka, Japan with his wife and daughter in a 150-year-old thatched-roof house in the mountainous countryside. Born in Nebraska in 1956, he graduated with a B.A. in Art in 1978 from Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa where he received a certificate for outstanding achievement in art. Before moving to Japan in 1980, he lived in New Zealand. Achieving a strong professional reputation among collectors and ceramic artists, Peter has exhibited in museums in Japan and New Zealand. In 1996 he became the only foreigner to be accepted into the prestigious Japan Art Crafts Association. Since 1995 he exhibits in two or three one person shows a year at Mitsukoski Department Stores, one of the most prestigious places to show in Japan. He maintains a strong Japanese tradition of excellence.

This new exhibition allows Peter to show his work in a more bicultural context. As a result the artist can revisit his roots in American art concepts and connect his ceramic sensibilities with his international flare thus melding his profound respect for both Eastern and Western cultures.

Exceptionally skilled as a ceramic artist, Peter articulates a special philosophy about life and our times. “I have always had an inclination toward the vessel and have been heavily influenced by the Japanese tea ceremony. The appreciation and even respect it teaches for objects of quality is an important aspect underlying traditional Japanese society.” He speaks philosophically and questions so much of what is presently happening in the world “It is so refreshingly remote in nature from the throw-away society we live in today. It excites me to think that possibly, some hundred of years in the future, a few of the pieces that I have made will still be used with even more respect for the time that has passed since their creation.”

Peter strives to obtain the type of quality that will still be appreciated in a hundred of years. This quality needs no justification or explanation. His works contain other steams and enjoys pure forms and drastic shapes worked into traditional forms. His new vessels are carved patterns and he turns them into shapes that hug the vessel and visually add a new dimension to just the vessel form. The wall plaques are of the same nature, but taken totally away from the vessel and its restrictions. Included in the exhibition will be his wood-fired tea bowls and tea caddies. Firing of this work requires three or four days of splitting and stoking wood reminding all of us the origins of ceramic art. This is the basic nature of the ceramic process and these special jewels are not refined merely for refinement’s sake.

With more than 40 works Peter introduces his first one person show on the West Coast at the Solomon Dubnick Gallery, Sacramento, CA. Check with the gallery for other information regarding special previews and meeting the artist.