Yagi Akira 八木明 b. 1955

Born 1955, Gojōzaka, Kyoto, Japan

YAGI AKIRA represents the third generation of a ceramics family in Kyoto known both for its discipline and for its avant-garde approach to art. After graduating from the Kyoto Prefectural Ceramics Institute in 1977, Yagi began working with his father, Yagi Kazuo (1918-1979), Japan’s most renowned avant-garde ceramic artist. Stepping away from in his father’s path, Yagi Akira explores the structural challenges in ceramics through the creation of series and sets. In these groupings of vessels, the space between and surrounding each element is as important as the components themselves. His nesting sets of bowls, graduated covered boxes, and fluted vessels all require great planning and precision to produce. Inspired by Chinese aesthetics, Yagi specializes in the delicate bluish-white seihakuji glaze, as well as deep, black iron glaze.