16. Ayumi Shigematsu 重松あゆみ

Shigematsu Ayumi was born in Toyonaka, Osaka prefecture, in 1958. She graduated in 1983 from Kyoto University of the Arts, where she would later be one of the few female professors to teach ceramics herself. She is thus among the pioneers for the second generation of female ceramists in Japan's traditionally male-dominated pottery industry.
Shigematsu Ayumi studied with Suzuki Osamu (1926-2001, see nr. 17) the foreman of the avant-garde Sodeisha ceramics movement, and her preference for sculptural rather than functional clay forms reflects key Sodeisha tenets. Shigematsu Ayumi's work is sensual, charged with a feminine, non-aggressive sexuality. The objects are coloured in many pastel shades, the surfaces are satin-smooth in texture and the many curves lead from outside to inside, from outer to inner, with planes and lines fluidly connected. Shigematsu Ayumi does not use traditional glazes for her colouring but brushes a mixture of differently coloured slip made with different pigments onto her clay opbjects. Before a work dries, she polishes the entire surface with a carefully selected stone and then quickly fires the object at a relatively low temperature to preserve the satin-smooth textures that are her trademark.
Shigematsu Ayumi has received wide acclaim for her work at home and abroad. She has participated in numerous exhibitions, won major awards and been included in collections of important museums such as the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, the Yingge Ceramics Museum in Taipei County and the New Mexico Museum of Art (USA)

Bone Ear, 1992-11, Kyoto University Museum