MIO YAMAGUCHI, Untitled 3, 2020
Clay
29 1/2 × 15 7/10 × 15 7/10 inches
Exhibition
New Directions: Japanese Women Artist
November 14 - December 12, 2020
Until the 1950s, even if Japanese women wanted to enter the pottery world, their work at kilns was only an auxiliary process, and they faced physical difficulties while being blocked by various conventions. Therefore, a continuous study began to promote kneading, forming and firing among women who blazed their own paths to become ceramic artists.
Since then, female ceramic artists have expanded their playing field as handicraft "pottery" has been changing into artistic "ceramics" including sculptural works full of creativity and design.
As independent artists, a greater number of female ceramic artists, who are most likely have studied pottery at art universities, pursue and express their world of deep contemplation in clay, and play a part in the diversity of contemporary ceramic art in Japan while freely displaying their unique visions and concepts.
In addition, the bold and precise forms, and fantastic and delicate expressions their works have been increasingly valued overseas in recent years, rather than in Japan.
We are proud to bring you four contemporary Japanese female artists, Mikiko Tomita, Mayumi Nakamura, Sayaka Shingu and Mio Yamaguchi, artists at different stages of their careers for a group exhibition in Boston. Tomita exhibited in the USA more than 10 years ago in a seminal exhibition, Touch Fire at the Smith College, MA while Nakamura, Shingu and Yamaguchi are exhibiting for the first time here.
MIO YAMAGUCHI, UNTITLED 3
I feel that my fascination towards the natural world’s use of repetition, in beehives and on the surface of corals, appears in my work as I consume and absorb the world around me. I like to believe that these works are natural forms made by my own hands. When I mold clay, I have a sensation that my body and consciousness blends and binds with the material and the natural world. The process of building upon each coil and applying each fold one by one with my hands is a form of meditation. Through this repetitive process I want to be able to convey my thoughts at the time in the texture, such as my struggle of swaying between the desires to live freely and falling under the pressure from societal expectations. It calms me down to observe the fingerprints left in the surface and see the traces of my existence in the clay. These works are products of what I have absorbed around me.
1992 Born in Aichi, Japan
2017 Aichi University of Education Graduate SchoolAwards
2014 Selected for the 49th Women’s Association of Ceramic Art Exhibition
2016 Selected for the 3rd Triennale of KOGEI in Kanazawa – Competition Exhibition: 2017 Kogei World Competition in
Kanazawa, Ishikawa2016 Selected for Ceramic Art in the Present Tense – The Hagi Grand Prix IV / Hagi Uragami Museum, Yamaguchi
2016 The 50th Women’s Association of Ceramic Art Exhibition, Kyoto Governor’s Prize Winner
2017 Selected for the 11th International Ceramics Competition Mino, Japan / Ceramic Park Mino, Gifu
Exhibitions
2015 Aichi University of Education – Ceramics and Glass Sculpture Exhibition / Seto Ceramics and Glass Art Center,
Aichi2015 Exhibition by 6 Ceramic Artists / Gallery SUKI, Aichi
2015 Art Exhibition / gallery VOICE, Gifu
2016 Art Exhibition by 14 Artists / Gallery SUKI, Aichi
2017 Form consisting of the clay – Part XV / gallery VOICE, Gifu
2017 Exhibition of Guinomi / Gallery SUKI, Aichi
2018 Mio Takatsu and Mio Yamaguchi Exhibition / Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto
2019 Favorite Form Exhibition – Multiplication and Ornament / Gallery SUKI, Aichi