YUKICO YAMADA

Yukico Yamada is a ceramicist based in an old neighbourhood of Kyoto where they preserve the simple wooden houses of traditional Japanese architecture, surrounded by mountains and forests. Yamada grew up in rural Osaka and instinctively learned to appreciate the beauty of nature, which has influenced her practice today. She has exhibited internationally, holding her first solo show in Kyoto in 2019 and many other group exhibitions across New Zealand, China, and Japan.

Her earthy, brutalist pottery is a fusion of elegance and irregularity, with undulating lines, soft curves, and skewed edges. Her minimalist body of work observes nature, using skilful hand building techniques, subtle glazes and electric kiln firing to express an interpretation of her surrounding landscape. She has a desire to express the quiet poetic moments of observation in her ceramics, breathing the smell of the earth and listening to the grass swaying in the breeze.

She says: “my source of inspiration has no concrete form; but if I am attentive to the moment in front of me, I realise it is full of wondrous things, and that gives me ideas for the form and texture of my works.”