Mineo Mizuno: Harmony

For several years, Mineo Mizuno has lived on Fort Mountain Ranch in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The intense beauty of the idyllic forest has inspired the artist’s latest body of work, which includes interventions across the property using ceramics, fallen trees, and manzanita shrubs removed to avert fires. 

For Harmony, he transplants elements of this immersive environment to Los Angeles. Tea House, like an earlier one he built on the ranch, is his interpretation of the traditional Japanese structure. Its open, organic form balances the seclusion needed to experience the tea ceremony with the powerful presence of the natural surroundings. 

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

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Around the tea house, Mizuno places a series of sculptures. Embedded in wood and on the ground, his ceramic water drops and tea bowls are painted with meditative repetitions of Japanese kanji such as yui (connect) and wa (harmony). These concepts reflect his ongoing interest in the communicative properties of trees and water.