Xu Min was born in a family fuU of artistic atmosphere; both of his
　　parents were students in Shanghai Arts Institute of Liu Haisu. His
　　father was one of the early domestic cartoon producers, and worked
　　in Chuangli Cartoon Workroom of Shanghai in early 1940s, drew
　　and filmed many short cartoon films. Xu Min’s mother was dedi-
　　cated in canvases research and creation. His father affected Xu Min
　　deeply, his interest for art was aroused from a child and had been
　　started to study drawing from his five-year-old. After the gradua-
　　tion from his middle school, his was engaged in scenograph and
　　tinct result picture drawing in technique department of alarm. Itl
　　1978, he got into art of ceramic department of Central Academy Of
　　Arts And Design with excellent score, and had stayed there for teach-
　　ing since his graduation in 1982. And then expatriated to us.
　　 Xu Min has very independent style in ceramic art, not only has the
　　spirit of western traditional culture, but also has the intense charac-
　　teristics of the time. With strong artistic convulsion, to mom life in
　　abiotic figuline; through his skillful mastering for glaze and chroma,
　　we can find his apperception for Laozi’s philosophy of"both useful-
　　ness & uselessness are favorable". Besides, it is a pioneering work
　　that he applied the subversion skill of by inside to many of his works;
　　it reflected the social transparence and the metaphor of people's
　　essential cognition for traditional concept in the new century.
　　 He pursues nature, purity simplity his working, it is just as what
　　China paintings believed "saving paper as gold", "saving ink as
　　gold", and he also believe that "saving glaze as gold". He thought
　　that fully glazed potteries were like " a raddled person " and lose the
　　natural sense. So he tried his best to display the artistic effect of "like
　　the lotus from the clear water, nature and unselfconsciousness" in
　　his pottery making, to pursue unpretending and natural aesthetics.
　　Xu Min thought one of the most suitable materials for shaping in the
　　world was argil, it can resist the time and the testing of water and
　　fair. Chinese people use gold, wood, water, fair and soil to represent
　　and explain universe, and ceramic facture and composing process
　　are also the process of gold, wood, water, fair and soil integrating.
　　So a ceramic works can be explained as the concentrate of all
　　universes. Development of art is to find new artistic modality and
　　language, and potteries are most closed to the nature of human
　　being, so the potteries is also trated as one of the most important
　　representation materials with iron and stone.
　　 Xu Min has been engaged in the creation of ceramic art more than
　　ten years, and integrated core skills into eastern ceramic art, dis-
　　played a various ceramic world to people.
　　


　　 徐敏出生在上海的一个充满艺术气氛的
　　家庭，父亲和母亲都是刘海粟先生上海美专
　　的学生，父亲是我国早期卡通片制作者之一，
　　早在四十年代初期，就在上海创立卡通片工
　　作室，绘制与拍摄了许多卡通短片。徐敏的
　　母亲从事油画的研究与创作。因此，徐敏受
　　到父亲的影响，自幼对艺术有着浓厚的兴趣，
　　五岁开始习画，中学毕业后在农场技术科从
　　事绘制建筑透视图与色彩效果图，1978年以
　　优秀的成绩考入中央工艺美术学院陶瓷艺术
　　系。1982年毕业后留校任教。后移居美国。
　　 徐敏的陶艺有着相当独立的风格，既有
　　着东方传统文化的精神，又有强烈的时代特
　　色。他的作品具有很强的艺术震撼力，在无
　　生命的陶土中塑造生命，透过他对釉料及色
　　度的适巧掌握，可以看出他对老子“有之以
　　为利，无之以为用”哲理的体会。此外，徐
　　敏的许多作品中将内壁向外的颠覆性手法，
　　可谓是一个创举，反映了现代社会的透明
　　度，则隐喻了新世纪到来之后，人们对某些
　　传统观念所必须有的认识。
　　 他的作品追求自然、纯朴。恰如中国画
　　所讲究的“惜纸如金”、“惜墨如金”一样，他
　　也讲究“惜釉如金”。他认为，上满釉的陶器
　　犹如“浓妆艳抹的人”，失去自然的感觉。所
　　以，他在制作陶器时，力求体现“清水出芙
　　蓉、天然去雕饰”的艺术效果，追求一种质
　　朴的自然美。
　　 徐敏认为，世间物质材料中最佳的塑造
　　材料之一就是陶土，它能与时间抗衡，又能
　　抵御天地间水与火的考验。中国的传统民族
　　文化以金、木、水、火、土五行代表天地宇
　　宙，而陶艺的制作、陶器的构成也正是金、
　　木、水、火、土五行结合的过程。所以，一
　　件陶艺作品可以说是宇宙万物的高度浓缩。
　　艺术的发展就是寻找新的形式，以及新的艺
　　术语言，陶最接近人本，因而陶也被列为与
　　铁、石等并重的表现素材之一。
　　 十几年来，徐敏潜心于陶瓷艺术的创
　　新，把西方艺术的精髓融入到东方的陶艺中
　　去，给世人展示了一个丰富多采的陶艺世
　　界。