The Honolulu Academy of Arts' current show is an extremely rare chance to see contemporary Korean ceramics. The traveling exhibition features a wide range of recent work by 54 South Korean ceramic artists showing 108 pieces that are as diverse and exciting as the country of their origin.

Rarely has the Henry R. Luce Gallery been used to such good effect. Cleverly divided into three colored-coded areas, the show visually states its three sub-themes to showcase large- and small-scale pieces that date from the early 1990s through 2003.

Tradition is the undercurrent shaping most of the issues and dialogue in Korean ceramics today — what can the ceramics of the past teach us today, and how are we continuing with the ceramic skills passed down from our ancestors? How has function changed in ceramics in a time when our lives have become deeply influenced by Western concepts?

Korea, with a ceramic history that dates back at least 5,000 years, is renowned for its celadon, buncheong (traditional bluish-green-toned stoneware) and white wares.

The first documented use of clay on the Korean Peninsula was during the Neolithic era. By the Age of the Three Kingdoms (57 B.C.-676 A.D.), the use of earthenware was part of everyday life.

By the 16th century, advances in Korean pottery inspired one of the most Japanese of pottery forms. In 1588, a tea bowl by Korean potter Tanaka Chojiro was shown to the influential tea master of the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi, leading to the creation of the raku tradition that's still part of the Japanese tea ceremony today.

The Japanese colonization of Korea from 1910 to 1945 severed the country's ceramic tradition, leaving the nation bereft of its own identity, a condition aggravated by the intervention of foreign troops and the Korean War.

Not until 1958 was ceramics taught as an independent subject in South Korean universities. What followed was a cultural exchange that continues to the present.

The show's works — by artists who range in age from 30 to 80, and come from many regions and schools — eloquently speak of Korea's history and aesthetic sensibility.

Guest curator Chung Hyun Cho, a ceramic artist and professor at Seoul's Ewha Womans University's College, shows two pieces strongly influenced by traditional forms and functional ware.

"Retrospect on Onggi II," for example, displays the most economical touch of calligraphic blue glaze caressed on the surface texture of the red clay body, evoking the large pots traditionally used to store fermented food such as kim chee and bean paste.

Eun Mee Lee's tough yet delicate stoneware sculpture "Waiting" resonates with ancient mystery of Neolithic builders who managed to created structures of amazing scale and technological wizardry.

Roh Hoon Guac's Sanchung clay body "Form-Series 2" straddles the past and informs the present as it invokes ancient plaiting expressed in modern clay.

In Chin Lee creates a raku-like, almost volcanic texture and feel in his stoneware "Bottle," an admirable balance of technique and sensibility.

Sung Min An's delicate porcelains, such as her subtly erotic "Origins of Life" and "Beginning," demand the spectator's tactile experience, an experience sadly but strictly off-limits to the museum visitor.

Jee Yoon Yum, a contemporary of An, displays similar sublimated erotic energy and delicate tactile craftsmanship in her porcelain "Looking Forward to ... A Birth ..."

Many pieces amaze with their sheer technical achievement, as with Shin Kwon's "Nest," a honeycomb-designed stoneware piece with wafer-thin components.

This exhibition merits repeat visits, allowing the viewer to bathe in the richness of the country and culture as expressed through the best of today's South Korean ceramic artists.

David C. Farmer holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in painting and drawing and a master's in Asian and Pacific art history from the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.