Katsumata Chieko 勝間田 千恵子 b. 1950

Born Shizuoka, Japan

After attending Japan Women's University, KATSUMATA CHIEKO received a grant in 1972 from the French government to study industrial design in Paris. While there, after a chance meeting with the well-known American potter Fance Franck (1931-2008), she was inspired to pursue a career in ceramics. Upon returning to Kyoto in 1978, she began to focus on the application of color to clay under the mentorship of Yanagihara Mutsuo. Instead of painting directly on her biomorphic, vegetal vessels, she covers the form with a thin piece of cloth through which she repeatedly applies color, leaving no trace of her brushwork. After repeated firings, followed by new applications of color, the surfaces take on a penetrating vivid color and soft textural appearance. She has exhibited extensively both in and outside of Japan, including France, Holland and the U.S.