For an artist of any era or background, “sympathetic invention” isn’t a sensibility that just springs up overnight. But, even in his early career, Rio Kobayashi has shown an ability to adapt to and intuit different disciplines and aesthetics well beyond his years. Lineage and geography take some of the credit: Kobayashi is originally from Mashiko, Japan, a town famous for its ceramics, and his father, Shirobey, is a well-known potter and master of wood firing. His Austrian-Italian mother, Pia, meanwhile, is a skilled conservator and master gilder. Though as Rio tells it, “There aren’t many baroque churches in Japan, so she grows vegetables and makes pickles for a living these days.”