72. Mio Yamaguchi  山口 美音

Born in 1992 in Aichi, Mio Yanaguchi belongs to the younger generation of female ceramicists. She studied art education at the Aichi University of Education after which she received further training at the Tajimi City Pottery Design and Technical Center.  Her work shows her fascination with nature, especially the way repetition and clusters of elements can be found in natural designs such as beehives and corals. She does not imitate these, but draws strong inspiration from them. Mio Yanaguchi's sculptures are reminiscent of rock formations made of slate, with its repetitive layering of clay-rich sediments, such as clay shale. that have been transformed under high pressure over countless centuries. Each layer can be as thin as a sheet of paper, just as Mio Taniguchi's sculptures are composed of countless thin layers. For her, applying each layer one by one is a form of meditation. When she works on her objects, she feels at one with the material, and the final sculpture seems to be the result of this meditative state of consciousness. It also invites the viewer to a moment of reflection and meditation, as one does in "suiseki," the Japanese art of appreciating the beauty of a stone as it has been shaped by elements over centuries, with explicit appreciation for aspects such as stability, longevity and immortality. And Mio Yanaguchi herself also experiences her objects as such, when she sees the fingerprints in the surface and can see the traces of her existence in the clay because, as she herself says, her thoughts and emotions are absorbed into the clay and recorded in the object. Despite her still young age, Mio Yanaguchi has already received much appreciation for her sculptures. She was selected to exhibit at the 3rd KOGEI Triennial in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, the Hagi Grand Prix IV at the Hagi Uragami Museum and the 50th Women's Association of Ceramic Art Exhibition and the 11th International Ceramics Competition Mino, Gifu. Renowned galleries such as the Sokyo Gallery, Kyoto and Gallery SUKI, Aichi have also presented her beautiful works.