Akiyama Yō 秋山 陽 b. 1953

Born Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

Considered one of Japan's most important contemporary artists, AKIYAMA YŌ has spent a lifetime exploring the physical properties of clay as a material. His massive sculptural works have more in common with those of contemporary sculptors in other media than by other ceramicists, though he is unconcerned with how he is labeled. Akiyama disrupts the symmetry created by a potter's wheel in startling ways: by breaking off portions to reveal interior construction, or by inverting sections to create internal tension. Akiyama's sculptures invite close inspection and intimate engagement with the surface textures carefully shaped by the artist's hands.

Akiyama's major concerns revolve around the physical properties of clay as a material and his exploration, through the manipulation of his medium, of the tension between surface and form, between the ordered and the organic. This direct relationship with his materials and commitment to experimentation and reinvention has made Akiyama one of Japan's most important contemporary artists. Currently, he serves as the chairman of the ceramics department at Kyoto City University of Arts.