Everyday Elegance in Chinese Ceramics

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Everyday Elegance in Chinese Ceramics
New exhibition focuses on Chinese utilitarian ceramics, which share an artistically rich and longstanding heritage.

SAN FRANCISCO—China has fostered the world’s longest and foremost ceramic tradition in terms of diversity, artistry, output, innovation, and global impact. Items such as food storage jars, headrests, and hat stands are a few of the many finely crafted, practical forms that have evolved throughout the centuries. Wares are mold made or wheel thrown from low-fired earthenware and high-fired stoneware or porcelain. Artisans employ a variety of decorative techniques, such as incising patterns and painting onto the surface of wares with underglaze. Everyday objects are frequently embellished with a host of auspicious symbols to increase the likelihood of wish fulfillment. Decorative motifs often take the form of flowers, birds, animals, children, or geometric designs. Everyday Elegance in Chinese Ceramics features a variety of functional wares from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries from various regions in China. Oil lamps in the shape of animals, colorful hat stands, lively guardian lions or “foo dogs,” blue-and-white porcelain, and rustic food storage jars are some of the many captivating forms on view.

Special thank you to Sally Yu Leung and Guangzhen Zhou for making this exhibition possible, and to Dr. William Ma, Assistant Professor, College of Art & Design, Louisiana State University, for his curatorial contributions.

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Everyday Elegance in Chinese Ceramics is is located pre-security in the Mayor Edwin M. Lee International Departures Hall, San Francisco International Airport. This exhibition is on view to all Airport visitors from January 20, 2024—August 17, 2025. There is no charge to view the exhibition.

About SFO Museum

Established in 1980 by the Airport Commission, SFO Museum’s mission is to delight, engage, and inspire a global audience with programming on a broad range of subjects; to collect, preserve, interpret, and share the history of commercial aviation; and to enrich the public experience at San Francisco International Airport. The Museum has been accredited by the American Alliance of Museums since 1999 and retains the distinction of being the only accredited museum in an airport.

Today, SFO Museum operates more than twenty-five sites throughout the Airport terminals, including fourteen galleries that exhibit a rotating schedule of art, history, photography, science, and cultural exhibitions. Among the sites is the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, which houses a permanent collection of more than 160,000 objects related to the history of commercial aviation. To browse current and past exhibitions, research our collection, or for more information, please visit www.sfomuseum.org. Follow us on www.facebook.com/sfomuseum, www.x.com/sfomuseum, or www.instagram.com/sfomuseum.

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