The Frank Lloyd Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibit by ceramic sculptor Akio Takamori during the month of December. In two installations of new figurative sculpture, Takamori continues to investigate communities, this time focusing on youth and a group of students. The students are both observant and self-reflective, and include small figures engaged in looking at their own portraits.
During the past summer, the artist encountered many students and children in an international ceramics studio in Hungary. Takamori made seven seated figures of young students, who are attentive and sitting together. The grouping will be shown in the center of the main gallery. In contrast, smaller standing figures of children will be exhibited with digital photo images. Both new groupings display Takamori's uncanny ability to marry a loose, brushy network of line and subtle color with solid figurative form.
Takamori, born and raised in Japan, has been working in the United States since 1974. Drawing upon Asian and American culture, childhood memories of Japan and his experiences in the United States, Takamori creates work that is truly cross-cultural. In recent years he has focused on figurative sculpture. Creating communities of figures, he deals with the interplay between history, tradition and modern life. His hand-built figures, with their calligraphic brush strokes and solid form, command attention.
Over the past thirty years, Takamori has been recognized for his continually evolving interpretations of the human form. From the dramatic vessel-based works of the 1980's and early 90's to the subdued and intimate figurative sculptures of recent years, his technical finesse and emotional sensibility are always evident. Included in many private and public collections around the world, Takamori's work constitutes an important contribution to the long tradition of figurative sculpture. Museum collections include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. A mid-career survey exhibition of Takamori's work, organized by Arizona State University's ceramics Research Center, toured the United States during 2006.