Collector, London
The collector James Young acquires ceramics from galleries in Japan and the United States as well as in the UK, where he lives. He primarily collects Japanese and contemporary British studio ceramics, including both functional and purely decorative works. He is especially focused on his Japanese collection, which includes chawan, guinomi, chaire, tokkuri and, more recently, beer cups. He owns work by artists including Ryuichi Kakurezaki, Kazu Yamada, Yukiya Izumita, Akiko Hirai and Osamu Inayoshi. Other ceramicists represented in his international collection include British studio potters Jim Malone, Phil Rogers and Steve Harrison, alongside South Korean ceramic artist Lee Kang-hyo and the Danish potter Anne Mette Hjortshøj. Though Young currently works full-time on the sales side of academic publishing, he is about to undertake an MA in East Asian art history, focused on ceramics.