Akio Takamori: To Be Human

April 29, 2019—June 8, 2019 | Gallery Closed for Memorial Day Weekend 5/25 - 5/28

James Harris Gallery is pleased to announce the seventh exhibition of works by Akio Takamori. The show will focus on the printmaking portion of his career, presenting a collection of works from some of his earliest prints to the last print he made before his passing in 2017. Also included are two early porcelain sculptures as well as two sleeper sculptures made at his residency at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma. Comprised of both prints and sculptural work, this exhibition highlights the range of Takamori’s creativity and mastery of various media, and gives viewers the opportunity to see the robust conversation between his two and three-dimensional work.

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"Birth of Bacchus" 2015
"Summer Dream" 2012
"Night" 1997
"Sea Serpent" 2008
"Fuck" 2014
"Orange Sleeper (Female)" 2014
"Black Sleeper (Male)" 2014
"Love" 2008
"War" 2013
"Fruit Tree" 1993
"Male" 1983
"Female" 1983
Man and Woman" 1992
"Tree" 1992
“Appearance of Kannon to a Man” 1995
“Appearance of Kannon to a Woman” 1995

Akio Takamori

Takamori was a seminal figure in ceramic art, whose work over the past thirty years has left an enduring impact on the Pacific Northwest arts and the medium itself. His work is often autobiographical, drawing on his life in Japan, his family, and mythological themes. He is known for his coil-built figurative sculptures in which the narrative painting defines the form.  Takamori explored themes of cultural identity by engaging the history of Eastern and Western aesthetics. Bold form and color defines his body of work, which is highly expressive of human emotion and sensuality.

Akio Takamori was born and raised in Japan. He has been exhibiting in the United States, Europe and Asia since the mid 1980s. Takamori received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1976 and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University in 1978.

Takamori’s work is included in numerous collections including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Los Angels County Museum of Art, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Ariana Museum in Geneva, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including three National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Grants (1986, 1988, 1992), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant (2006), and the USA Ford Fellowship (2011). Takamori was a professor of art at the University of Washington. He lived and worked in Seattle.