Machiko Munakata’s five ceramic sculptures at Dubhe Carreno reflect a lifelong quest to organize her world. Compellingly strange, they balance smooth but surprising geometric configurations with repeating painted designs on the surface. “I feel very chaotic,” she says, “and compelled to seek order. I would always fix my friends’ toilet paper so that it came up over the top. I still check three times that the alarm clock is set correctly.” Born in the United States to Japanese parents and raised in Japan, she adds, “I’m a terrible dresser. When I was little I used to put on all these different things, and my mother would get this horrified look.” Her elite Japanese high school was so strict that Munakata transferred to a U.S. boarding school, a decision her parents supported; she’s lived in the United States ever since. But the delicacy of her flawless surfaces shows the influence of her early schooling: “Skill and craftsmanship are very important.”
