Akio Takamori
Encyclopedia
Akio Takamori is a Japanese-American ceramic sculptor and is a faculty member at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

.

Biography

Takamori was born in Nobeoka, Miyazaki
Nobeoka, Miyazaki
is the northernmost city located in Miyazaki, Japan.-Population:As of the January 1, 2008 merger, the city has an estimated population of 130,435 and a population density of 150 persons per km². The total area is 867.97 km².-History:...

, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in 1950. The son of an obstetrician/gynecologist who ran a clinic, Takamori was exposed to a wide range of people from an early age. At home, his father’s extensive library of both art and medical texts became a fascination for Takamori, who relished everything from Picasso reproductions to anatomical charts.

Takamori’s interest in the arts persisted into early adulthood and upon his graduation from the Musashino Art College in 1971, he apprenticed to a master folk potter at Koishiwara, Kyushu. While learning the craft of industrial ceramics in a factory setting, he saw a traveling exhibition of contemporary ceramic art from Latin America, Canada, and the United States. Blown away by what he describes as the “antiauthoritarian” quality of the work, Takamori began to question his future as an industrial potter. When renowned American ceramist Ken Ferguson visited the pottery, the two had an immediate rapport and Ferguson encouraged Takamori go to the United States and study with him at the Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....

.

In 1974 Takamori made the move to the United States, receiving his B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and later attending Alfred University
Alfred University
Alfred University is a small, comprehensive university in the Village of Alfred in Western New York, USA, an hour and a half south of Rochester and two hours southeast of Buffalo. Alfred has an undergraduate population of around 2,000, and approximately 300 graduate students...

 in New York for his M.F.A. After working as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation
Archie Bray Foundation
The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts is a public, nonprofit, educational institution located 3 miles from downtown Helena, Montana, USA....

 in Helena, Montana
Helena, Montana
Helena is the capital city of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County. The 2010 census put the population at 28,180. The local daily newspaper is the Independent Record. The Helena Brewers minor league baseball and Helena Bighorns minor league hockey team call the...

, he moved to Seattle, Washington in 1993, where he took his current teaching position as associate professor of the ceramics department.

Work

Takamori’s evolution as an artist began as he worked with Ferguson to break free of the constraints of industrial pottery and find new ways to express himself in clay. Since those first years at the Kansas City Art Institute his work has changed greatly, but it has always been figurative, based on the human body and expressive of human emotion and sensuality.

In the 1980s, Takamori worked innovatively with the vessel form and its structure, creating flat envelope shaped pots formed from slabs. Once the ceramic piece was finished, he would paint onto the surface adding details of the figures that he was representing. These figures often explored human relationships. His work in this format lasted about ten years.

In the mid 1990s a visit to the European Ceramic Work Center in The Netherlands resulted in a shift from vessels back to an early interest in sculpture and the figure. Takamori created groupings of standing figural sculptures. The figures portray historical characters, contemporary society and rural villagers recalled from the artist's childhood in Japan.

Most of Takamori’s work has been strongly influenced by his Japanese heritage. He has translated traditional Japanese prints into three dimensional porcelain sculptures, he recreated his hometown in Japan from memory using clay, and he has translated Peter Bruegel’s paintings into sculptures of Japanese people.

Awards

2006 Joan Mitchell Foundation

2003 Flintridge Foundation Awards for Visual Artists

2001 Virginia A. Groot Award

1996 Fellowship at Keramisch Werkcentrum, s’Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

1993 Fellowship at Keramisch Werkcentrum, s’Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

1992 National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Grant

1988 National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Grant

1986 National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Grant

Museum Collections

American Craft Museum, New York

Archie Bray Foundation
Archie Bray Foundation
The Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts is a public, nonprofit, educational institution located 3 miles from downtown Helena, Montana, USA....

, Helena, MT

Arizona State University
Arizona State University
Arizona State University is a public research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the State of Arizona...

 Art Museum, Nelson Fine Arts Center, Tempe

The Arkansas Arts Center
Arkansas Arts Center
One of the leading cultural institutions in the state, the Arkansas Arts Center is located on the corner of 9th and Commerce streets in MacArthur Park, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. The Arkansas Arts Center was founded in 1960, but the idea began in 1914, when the Fine Arts Club of Arkansas formed...

 Decorative Arts Museum, Little Rock

Boca Raton Museum of Art
Boca Raton Museum of Art
The Boca Raton Museum of Art is located at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, Florida in Mizner Park. It houses works of art by a number of the great masters.-About:...

, Boca Raton FL

Carnegie Institute Art Museum, Pittsburgh

Hallmark Art Collection, Kansas City, MO

Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....

, MO

Johnson County Community College
Johnson County Community College
Johnson County Community College Is referred to locally by the synechdoche "Ju-co", and is located in Overland Park, Kansas at College Boulevard and Quivira Road.-History:...

, Overland Park, KS

The Kinsey Institute, OH

The Kinsey Institute, Bloomington, IN

Kruithuis Museum, ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is an art museum in Los Angeles, California. It is located on Wilshire Boulevard along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles, adjacent to the George C. Page Museum and La Brea Tar Pits....



The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Shigaraki, Japan

The Museum of Ceramic Arts, Alfred, NY

National Museum of History, Taipei, Republic of China

Rhode Island School of Design Museum
Rhode Island School of Design Museum
Rhode Island School of Design Museum is a prominent art museum in Providence, Rhode Island affiliated with the well-known Rhode Island School of Design...



Spencer Museum of Art
Spencer Museum of Art
The Spencer Museum of Art, or SMA, is an art museum on the campus of University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. While admission is free, donations are accepted. Also located inside the Spencer Museum of Art are the Kress Foundation Department of Art History, and the Murphy Library of Art &...

, Laurence, KS

Taipei Fine Arts Museum
Taipei Fine Arts Museum
The Taipei Fine Arts Museum is a museum in Taipei, Taiwan. The museum first opened on December 24, 1983 at the former site of the United States Taiwan Defense Command . It was the first purpose built museum in Taiwan to host modern and contemporary art exhibitions...

, Taipei, Republic of China

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2004 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica

2003 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

2002 Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle

2001 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica

2000 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1999 Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle

1998 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica, Robert Else Gallery, California State University, Sacramento

1997 Cohen/Berkowitz Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, Trax Gallery, Berkeley, Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1996 Tempe Arts Center, Arizona, Hiestand Galleries/Miami University, Oxford, Ohio

1995 Habitat/Shaw Gallery, Pontiac, Michigan
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1994 Garth Clark Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri, Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1992 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh

1991 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1990 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1989 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York

1988 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1987 Garth Clark Gallery, New York

1986 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Esther Saks, Chicago

1985 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1984 Garth Clark Gallery, New York, The Morgan Gallery, Los Angeles

1983 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles

1980 Himawari Gallery, Miyazaki, Japan

Books

Akio Takamori: Ceramic sculpture, by Akio Takamori, Garth Clark Gallery (2000)


Between Clouds of Memory Akio Takamori, a Mid-career Survey, by Akio Takamori, et al.
Univ of Washington Press, Oct 30 2005

Sources

Flintridge Foundation

Curriculum Vitae

Seattle Times Article

500 Figures in Clay: Ceramic Artists Celebrate the Human Form by Veronika Alice Gunter, Sterling Publishing, September 2004, ISBN 978-1-57990-547-7

Figure in Clay: Contemporary Sculpting Techniques by Master Artists, by Suzanne J. Tourtillott, Sterling Publishing, August 2005, ISBN 978-1-57990-611-5

External links

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