48. Chiyo Nagaoka 長岡 千陽

 Chiyo Nagaoka was born in 1983 in Hasami-cho, prefectyre Nagasaki. She studied design at Saga Prefectural Arita Technical High School, and at Aichi University of Education . She had several exhibitions including a solo exhibition at the Meguro Museum of Ceramics and participated in several biennales and competitions including the Kobe Biennale Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition. In addition to making ceramic art, she is also active as a designer of utilitarian ceramics manufactured in mass production. It intrigues her that the same material from which everyday tableware and objects are made also allows her to shape a her personal feelings, and the uncertainty of how an object can deform and crack in the kiln gives her the anxious but also exciting feeling of facing an unknown landscape. Her sculptures of about 50, 60cm high and wide, are wonderfully beautiful, and intriguing, Often reminiscent of giant shells from the deep sea, on which smaller shells have attached themselves. The colors are subdued and meticulously applied. Although this is the most striking form, she has also made other work that is equally surprising, a sign of evolution and her desire to keep searching for change.