LIM KIM HUI CV

Lim Kim Hui’s journey in ceramics spans more than four decades, beginning from the now-defunct Ming Village Ceramics throughout the 1980s, where he recalls throwing massive Chinese vases with the unwieldy medium of porcelain slip. Mesmerised by Japanese pottery and its rich traditions, he has gone on learning and research trips to the historic centres of Japanese pottery production in Bizen, Karatsu, Tokoname, Arita, and Shigaraki. Works such as his meditative Chawan (ceremonial tea bowls) have been exhibited in Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Belgium, and China, with a solo exhibition held in 2013. A member of the Nanyang Clay Group and Singapore Society of Chinese Artists, he was commissioned to create works for the 2009 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. He has been teaching at schools and organisations across Singapore, including the Japanese Association since 2004.

After chancing upon high-fire ceramics while using a secondhand kiln, Lim refined his firing process and discovered the secret of making iron-glazed tenmoku ware, an exceptionally challenging type of pottery to master dating back to the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). He has formulated glazes and developed techniques in hand-building, wheel-throwing, and reduction-firing, and has come to be known for highfired smoked glazed pots with a certain dense, organic “charred wood” finish. Infused with Chinese, naturalist Southeast Asian and Japanese elements and influences, his works make inventive use of colour and form, emphasizing foregrounding the unadorned beauty of natural raw materials.