51. Akiko Hirai  平井明子

Akiko Hirai was born in Shizuoka in March 1970. She initially studied cognitive psychology in Japan after which she went to England to visit her sister, who was studying photography there. During her first visit to England, she was drawn to English culture and the complexities of London's multicultural society. It made her aware of her own cultural influence on her visual perception. Her interests led to a second visit to England in 1999. She met many English potters and learned how to work with clay, after which she decided to study ceramics at the University of Westminster and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. After graduation, Akiko found her studio at The Chocolate Factory N16 in Stoke Newington among other changing artists where she still practices her ceramic work. Akiko makes utensils in the Japanese tradition where she lets the clay itself show her how it wants to be fired. Her work also allows viewers to discover the language of the objects in their own way. She focuses on the interaction between the objects and the viewers. In her view, it is the viewer's imagination and fantasy that complete the work and make it more perfect than it really is.
Akiko Hirai's work and her unique approach to ceramics has received international recognition and is now in a number of prestigious collections, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Everson Museum, Syracuse in New York, the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, and the Keramikmuseum Westerwald, Germany.