By
María Laura Hernández de Agüero
CARLOS RUNCIE TANAKA’S CERAMICS IN PINTA LIMA’S SPECIAL PROJECT
"Repeating and mastering form, shaping clay spheres, is like offering a prayer with no beginning or end in time. When I look, I hear distant music" — Carlos Runcie Tanaka (A Zen Parable and Ten Small Stories, 2007)
April 22, 2026
Carlos Runcie Tanaka (Lima, 1958–2025). Untitled (Desert Intervention. Km. 40, Panamericana Sur Highway). Photo: Javier Silva Meinel
Fundación Pinta, Henrique Faría Gallery, and Carlos Runcie Tanaka’s estate present the Special Project at Pinta Lima dedicated to Carlos Runcie Tanaka (Lima, 1958–2025), an artist whose work in ceramics, at the intersection with pre-Hispanic traditions and installation formats, stands as a fundamental reference for the history of Peruvian and Latin American art.
This project brings together a series of works that attest to a sustained commitment to craft and a constant pursuit of mastery over the form of the clay sphere. The selection includes works produced by the artist between 2001 and 2007.
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Carlos Runcie Tanaka (Lima, 1958–2025). Sin título (Intervención en el desierto Km. 40 carretera Panamericana Sur). Fotografía: Javier Silva Meinel
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Carlos Runcie Tanaka (Lima, 1958–2025). Sin título (Intervención en el desierto Km. 40 carretera Panamericana Sur). Fotografía: Javier Silva Meinel
A large crab, crafted in stoneware, stands at the entrance of his home-studio in the Surco district of Lima. These crabs, humble and persistent creatures, reappear throughout his installations, becoming signs of a wandering, fragile yet obstinate human condition.
Throughout his career, Runcie Tanaka developed a singular visual language. His work is shaped by coastal landscapes, his family heritage, and pre-Columbian cultures. In contrast to the more narrative or overtly political approaches that marked many artists of his generation, his practice -initiated in the 1980s after he decided to leave his Philosophy studies at the Pontificia Universidad Católica- invites contemplation. His pieces seek a sensory and silent experience, where the repetition of forms and the use of space generate atmospheres that are at once calm and tense.
The artist gradually gained recognition, and his works traveled across biennials and museums. His studio was, for him, a space of introspection. “I remember that one of my Japanese teachers always had an offering for the kami-sama, the lord of fire, a Japanese term. At first, while you’re young, you tend to fight against it; but later you realize that you are fighting alongside it to achieve something,” he said in one of his last interviews. In an era marked by noise and speed, the work of Carlos Runcie Tanaka endures as a genuine contribution to the beauty born of clay and fire.
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