Washington

Biography

Through clay and works on paper, Akio Takamori explores human relationships: interpersonal, archetypal, social and historical. His whimsical and erotic envelope-vessel forms from the 1980s celebrate life's intimate connections—lovers, family, mother and child—as well as couplings from mythology. Shapely nude forms are modeled in three-dimensional relief and outlined with a fluid calligraphy that emphasizes their contours. Painting the vessel's interior as well as exterior surface, Takamori creates "a three-dimensional stage on which the dramatic spectrum of human experience and emotions are played out." Objects and subject matter revel in dualities—inside and out, drawing and form, male and female, union and separation. Takamori's work moved in a new direction during a 1996 residency at the European Ceramic Work Center in The Netherlands. He began to create groupings of standing figural sculptures "in which the space, scale, hierarchy, gesture and prominence of the figures initiated a new kind of open-ended dialogue with other pieces." The figures portray historical characters, contemporary society and rural villagers recalled from the artist's childhood in Japan. Takamori's interest is in exploring "cumulative memory" and "the shifting historical, cultural, and racial perspectives that serve to form both individual and group identities." Takamori came to the U.S. to study art in the mid-1970s. He has been on the faculty of the School of Art, University of Washington, Seattle, since 1993.