Designed for Flowers: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics opens February 23, 2014.

The exhibition at the Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland, displays a wide range of contemporary Japanese ceramic vessels produced for the traditional art of ikebana flower arranging.

“With designs linked to long-standing Japanese traditions and contemporary artistic expression, the exhibition celebrates the works of many of Japan’s greatest living ceramic artists,” says Robert Mintz, chief curator and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Quincy Scott Curator of Asian Art at the Walters. “Comprised almost exclusively of vases drawn from the Betsy and Robert Feinberg Collection, the exhibition explores the ways contemporary ceramic artists have met the challenge of producing vessels as supports for flowers.”

Responding to Japan’s ikebana flower arranging traditions and to the distinctive design aspects of the Japanese interior, ceramics in the exhibition, open through May 11, 2014, reveal the beauty and power that has distinguished Japan’s contemporary ceramic artists.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday and 5 to 9 p.m. Thursdays. Designed for Flowers: Contemporary Japanese Ceramics is a special ticketed exhibition, Road Trips Gardeners, but if you time your arrival between 5 and 9 p.m. Thursdays, there is no admission charge.

The Walters Art Museum is located in downtown Baltimore’s historic Mount Vernon Cultural District at North Charles and Centre Streets.

(Photo courtesy of Walters Art Museum)