60. Katsuyo Aoki  青木克世

Born in 1972, Katsuyo Aoki studied painting (BFA) and ceramics (MFA) at Tama Art University. Katsuyo Aoki creates highly complex porcelain sculptures, lavishly decorated with perfectly designed garlands and other ornaments that appear to come from 18th century floats, family crests and mirror rims. Her works with exuberant detail drawn from decorative styles, patterns and motifs from Baroque and Rococo meet the viewer without restraint. In Katsuyo Aoki's philosophy, each of these decorative forms in her work are references to myths and allegories from bygone eras. For example, her skulls, are a familiar theme in her work for which she drew inspiration from the Norse folk magic tradition. And she also created works in which she imitates 18th-century Chinese porcelain combined with Victorian ornaments and macabre elementsform the Norwegian troll sages, a reference to the flourishing trade in blue and white porcelain between China and Europe. Through these historical and mythological references, she hopes to convey feelings of romance, adoration and tranquility. Although she was also trained as a painter, and has mastered this craft to perfection, as shown in her blue and white imitations of Chinese porcelain, she expresses these concepts through the use of ceramics, which, due to its fragility and delicacy, seems the most appropriate medium for this purpose. In 2010 Katsuyo Aoki received the De Le Mer Female Artist Award and since then numerous important galleries and museums such as Jason Jacques Gallery in Chelsea, the Bernardaud Foundation in Paris and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art have exhibited her work. She currently lives and works in Toyko.