77. Nakaigawa Yuki  中井川由季

Nakaigawa Yuki was born in 1960 in Ibaraki Prefecture and studied painting at the Tama Art University Graduate School of Fine Arts. In the late 1980s, after completing her education, she began experimenting with creating three-dimensional works using clay as a material. She uses this to create large-scale works by arranging and stacking different forms of smaller shapes. Many of her large-scale works consist of these kinds of assemblages of smaller forms that appear to be on the verge of collapse or disintegration. She first builds the forms using the coiling technique (in which she rolls out a small amount of clay until it forms a rope-like shape and then stacks it to the desired form). Using her fingers and small tools, she adds texture to the surface and covers it with several layers of sludge before firing. The individual pieces are then connected with bolts that are hidden from view.

Nakaigawa Yuki finds inspiration for her work in the nature of her childhood, when she collected stones as a child and displayed them in her room. Her experiences in the rural village in Ibaraka Prefecture where she grew up come to her even though she has no clear memories of them. Her current creations are rooted in observations of nature and attempts to recreate the forms and atmosphere she picked up there.

Nakaigawa Yuki belongs to the first generation of women ceramists in Japan who have made a name for themselves nationally and internationally. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and her work is in the collections of such museums as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Korea Ceramic Foundation in Seoul and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.