Akio Takamori

Akio Takamori (1950 - 2017) was a sculptor, printmaker, and painter who explored human relationships: interpersonal, archetypal, social and historical. Born in Nobeoka, Japan in 1950, Akio received formal training in both Japan and the United States. In 1974 Takamori made the move to the United States, receiving his B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute and later attending Alfred University in New York for his M.F.A.. After working as a resident artist at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana, he moved to Seattle, Washington in 1993, where he took his past teaching position as associate professor of the University of Washington's ceramics department. He has exhibited throughout the world and his artwork has been collected by museums including the American Craft Museum (New York), Archie Bray Foundation (Helena, MT), Arizona State University Art Museum, Nelson Fine Arts Center (Tempe), The Arkansas Arts Center Decorative Arts Museum (Little Rock), Boca Raton Museum of Art (Boca Raton), Boston Athenaeum (Boston), Carnegie Institute Art Museum (Pittsburgh), Hallmark Art Collection (Kansas City, MO), Kansas City Art Institute, Johnson County Community College (Overland Park, KS), The Kinsey Institute (Bloomington, IN), Kruithuis Museum (The Netherlands), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art (Shigaraki, Japan) The Museum of Ceramic Arts (Alfred, NY), National Museum of History (Taipei, Republic of China), Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Spencer Museum of Art (Laurence, KS), Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Republic of China) Victoria & Albert Museum (London), and Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, Canada).