Gagosian presents: “Cold Mountain Clay” by Edmund de Waal

Gagosian is pleased to present ”Cold Mountain Clay,” an exhibition of new and recent works by Edmund de Waal. A potter since childhood and an acclaimed writer, de Waal makes porcelain works that function as repositories of human memory and experience. Drawing equally from Eastern and Western traditions, de Waal’s works blend a minimalist visual language with invocations of the written word, positing the act of collection—of objects, texts, materials, and thoughts—as an art form.

The exhibition takes its title from the famed ”Cold Mountain” poems, a series of verses by the monk Hanshan, who, according to legend, lived as a recluse on a Chinese mountaintop during the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). Composed with diaristic frankness and intensity, the poems address the unavoidable passage of time and trace the introspective state that comes with monastic solitude.