56. Chisato Yasui   安井ちさと

Chisato Yasui was born in Aichi Prefecture in 1984 and studied at the University of Tsukuba. Initially she focused on painting, but from the second year she also began pottery. She was particularly inspired by the artistic approach of her teacher Toshiju Saito, who stated that in the process of creation, the material is above the feelings of the artist, but also that it is not just about the material and that his students had to train themselves in finding out the truth with their own senses. Thus, Chisato realized that clay offered her the opportunities she was looking for to express her feelings and soul. In 2010, Chisato Yasui received her master's degree from the University of Tsukuba, where she continues to live and work today.
Chisato Yasui makes her sculptural works from porcelain and stoneware as well as glazed and pigmented clay and forms them using coil forming. Coiling is a technique in which the clay is rolled out into a long thin coil that is superimposed around a base, gradually increasing in height. This time-honored technique also allows her to cut and form in-between parts of her work and therefore can be more intuitive and spontaneous in the creative process itself. Her sculptures with their abstract and geometric forms resemble what can be found in nature, in the form of crystal rocks. For firing, she sometimes uses as many as three different glazes on the body, creating innovative textures and colors.
Chisato Yasui is gaining increasing recognition for her captivating scupltures, which have already been featured in numerous important and successful solo exhibitions in Japan and Europe. She has also won many awards, including the 55th Women's Ceramic Art Exhibition, Selected (Kyocera Museum of Art, Kyoto, 2021) , and the Award of International Contemporary Art Exhibition in Venice in 2021. Her works are in prominent collections such as Vessel Gallery in London, Tortoise, California and Cibone, New York.