Yoshiko Iwaki
06 Oct - 10 Nov 2012
YOSHIKO IWAKI
Just Another Diamond Day
6 October - 10 November 2012
Yoshiko Iwaki has created ceramic works with the motifs of human figures and animals, and installations of them. When she was studying at the department of oil paining at Tama Art University, she created a sculptural work“poop of bush”, using the clay she found in the bush of the university campus. As an infant’s excrement tells his or her condition, Iwaki noticed clay is like excrement of the earth. When she taught art at the school for the deaf, she was impressed by the children’s vibrant and refreshing reactions to clay as they touch it “as if they just took bath”. Fascinated by the quality of clay, Iwaki started working with ceramic.
Iwaki received the training of techniques at a pottery design and technical center in Tajimi, which allowed her to work with clay more freely. In her first solo exhibition “Little red riding hood”, she presented an installation of more than 100 ceramic dolls of little red riding hoods and old women. Since then, she has not limit her artistic practice and style to the genre of ceramic and explored various ways of presentation, such as hanging the dolls from the ceiling, painting on a small cup she found in an old factory, or showing drawings along with ceramic pieces. The exhibition space she creates with these small ceramic dolls gives a dreamlike sense, as if she turns her stories into reality.
“Just Another Diamond Day” is Iwaki’s first solo exhibition with Tomio Koyama Gallery. She has moved to Miyagi prefecture in 2007 from Tajimi, where she learned ceramic, and started exploring the method of outdoor firing. The dolls with soft expressions seem to have similar luster to bronze, which is created not by glaze, but by sanding the surface of half-dried clay and steaming and firing for long time.
Iwaki has worked as a former name, Yoshiko Hirata. Now being a mother, her work has gained strength as well as tenderness.
Yohiko Iwaki was born in 1970 in Hiroshima. She currently lives and works in Miyagi. After graduating from the oil painting department of Tama Art University in 1993, she worked as an art teacher, then studied ceramic at Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center for 2 years from 1996. She has held solo exhibitions at galleries in Gifu and Aichi prefectures, Japan.
Just Another Diamond Day
6 October - 10 November 2012
Yoshiko Iwaki has created ceramic works with the motifs of human figures and animals, and installations of them. When she was studying at the department of oil paining at Tama Art University, she created a sculptural work“poop of bush”, using the clay she found in the bush of the university campus. As an infant’s excrement tells his or her condition, Iwaki noticed clay is like excrement of the earth. When she taught art at the school for the deaf, she was impressed by the children’s vibrant and refreshing reactions to clay as they touch it “as if they just took bath”. Fascinated by the quality of clay, Iwaki started working with ceramic.
Iwaki received the training of techniques at a pottery design and technical center in Tajimi, which allowed her to work with clay more freely. In her first solo exhibition “Little red riding hood”, she presented an installation of more than 100 ceramic dolls of little red riding hoods and old women. Since then, she has not limit her artistic practice and style to the genre of ceramic and explored various ways of presentation, such as hanging the dolls from the ceiling, painting on a small cup she found in an old factory, or showing drawings along with ceramic pieces. The exhibition space she creates with these small ceramic dolls gives a dreamlike sense, as if she turns her stories into reality.
“Just Another Diamond Day” is Iwaki’s first solo exhibition with Tomio Koyama Gallery. She has moved to Miyagi prefecture in 2007 from Tajimi, where she learned ceramic, and started exploring the method of outdoor firing. The dolls with soft expressions seem to have similar luster to bronze, which is created not by glaze, but by sanding the surface of half-dried clay and steaming and firing for long time.
Iwaki has worked as a former name, Yoshiko Hirata. Now being a mother, her work has gained strength as well as tenderness.
Yohiko Iwaki was born in 1970 in Hiroshima. She currently lives and works in Miyagi. After graduating from the oil painting department of Tama Art University in 1993, she worked as an art teacher, then studied ceramic at Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center for 2 years from 1996. She has held solo exhibitions at galleries in Gifu and Aichi prefectures, Japan.