Ogawa Machiko

Ogawa Machiko has been a vital force in the dialogue of contemporary clay since her arrival on the scene in 1985. After years of study at Tokyo National University of Fine Arts & Music, she drew inspiration from her travels, which included living and studying in Paris at the École d’Arts et Métiers and then in Burkina Faso in West Africa. Winner of the Japan Ceramic Society Award, she has be the subject of numerous solo exhibitions at major galleries and museums throughout Japan. Some of her work resembles cracked ice, while other vessels have a volcanic, scorched earth appearance. While Japanese in origin, Ogawa’s work transcends national characterization, resonating with a universal sensibility.
1946 Born in Sapporo, Japan

1969 Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Studied with three Living National Treasures: Fujimoto Yoshimichi (1919-1992), Kato Hajime (1900-1968), Tamura Koichi (1918-1987)

1969-71 Studied Ceramic at École d’Arts et Métiers, Paris

1972-75 Studied Ceramics in West Africa

Awards:

1992 Takashimaya Culture Trust Fund
, New Artist Encouragement Prize
2001 Japan Ceramic Society Prize
2008 Art Encouragement Prize of the Ministry of Education and Culture
2010 Musée Tomo Prize, Award of Excellence

Selected Museum Collections:

Aichi Prefectural Ceramics Museum, Aichi
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Gitter-Yellen Collection, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
Musée Tomo, Tokyo
Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama
Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Rakusui-tei Museum of Art, Toyama
River Retreat Garaku, Toyama
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
Sōgetsu Art Museum, Tokyo
Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo
Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Takamatsu
Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyoya, Aichi
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

"Avoiding deliberate primitivity, yet inspired by a sense of liberation from the narrow, hallowed strictures of lifelong training in the use of wheel and kiln, Ogawa does not so much use clay to achieve self-expression as make herself the means through which the clay reveals its inner strength, a process that she sees as one of self-discovery, an interjection of traces of humanity into evocations of the earth’s geologic cycles.”      

JOE EARLE, former head of the Asian art departments at Victoria & Albert Museum and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston