Artist Statement 

In Japanese the word “complex” is causally used to describe an inferiority complex or closeness. However, I am aware that in psychology, the term refers to certain types of impulses, desires, and attachments. I have titled my work Complex to reference both of these meanings.

As an adolescent I attended an evening high school program in the outskirts of Tokyo, and there I felt the impacts of poverty and the imbalanced nature of Japanese society. I often thought about how and why societal systems exist and struggled with this reality. As an outlet to express these thoughts, I have drawn from my background in painting and ceramics and developed this body of work.

As I made these works I thought about what caused my emotional responses and reflected upon my own “complexes.” I have come to believe that emotions come from an entanglement of belief systems, personal histories, and interactions with different environments. I have attempted to express this mental process of self reflection through my work as “decomposing → re-recognizing → reconstructing.”

I use the plasticity of clay to express an instinctive, abstract, organic, and constantly changing form of emotion. Then, I carefully coat the body with coloured slip. This process is where I reconstruct my emotions rationally by intentionally controlling the material, colour, and texture by layering slip.

I believe that such processes, shapes, and colour combinations can express the complexity and accumulation of emotions that lead to such “complexes.” By presenting these ceramic forms of layered slip, I hope to provoke an emotional reaction from the viewer, perhaps opening a window to their own inner emotions.

1996     Born in Tokyo
2017     Setsu Mode Seminar, Painting school, Tokyo, Japan
2019     Ishoken, Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center,  Tajimi

2020       Ishoken, Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center, ceramics Lab, Tajimi, Japan

Currently working and studying in Utatsuyama Kobo, Kanazawa

Solo exhibitions

2022     Gallery Suki, Aichi

2017     Setsu Gallery, Tokyo

Group exhibitions

2021     Kasama Kogei Award Exhibition, Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum

2020     Link of Kanazawa

2019     Asuten, Minoyaki Ceramic Art Museum, Tajimi
Yoi no Katachi Part Ⅱ, Gallery Voice, Tajimi
Guinomi, Gallery Suki, Konan city

Art fairs

2021　 Art Fair Tokyo 2021, Tokyo

2020       Collect, London, United Kingdom

Kanazawa Kogei Art fair 2020, Kanazawa

Awards

2021     Kanazawa Craft Council, Chairman’s Encouragement Award

2019       Graduate exhibition, Ishoken, Tajimi

Graduate exhibition, Ishoken, Tajimi

2018       Aoki Seishin no Katachi, Exhibition Prize, Runner up NHK in Partnership with Gallery Voice, Tajimi

2017     First prize Setsu Mode Seminar, Tokyo city, Japan

Public collections

2021     Ibaraki Ceramic Art Museum

2019       Tajimi city ceramic collection, Ishoken Tajimi Japan

Sasama International Ceramic Art Festival Sasama Konan Japan