Momoko Usami
Cone 6 Porcelain
4 1/8 x 5 x 3/4 x 3 7/8”
Statement
I am interested in variety of everyday movement for use. For example, stack cups, turn the light on, jump in a puddle, open a jar, try to look back of my head, dry plates on drying rack, etc. Functional ceramics start at the time from when you complete the firing. Owner’s every touch make the pot alive. Even if it breaks, that could be fixed with Kintsugi and will be added special personal memory and history to it. I make functional work with sculptural mind. People’s move will give my work an action. I attempt to make people conscious about the motion that is given by somebody touching works. My role as an artist is to enrich person’s everyday life by being able to touch and feel my work, and by discovering fresh views through it. I am seeking mutually related figurations between the viewer and my work. I would like to pursue my expression not just as a tool for life, but also to recognize daily consciousness.
Biography
Momoko Usami received a BFA and MFA from Kyoto City University of Art in Kyoto, Japan. After she completed two years as a resident artist at Lillstreet Art Center in 2009/2010, she built her personal studio in rural Missouri near Kansas City where she teaches small art classes for the community. Momoko draws inspiration from many things, including Japanese painting from the Edo period, dreams, and daily encounters on the street. Her unique, playful and often interactive ceramic works have been shown in the United States, Canada, and Japan.

A graduate of the Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture and the San Francisco Art Institute, Tara has been an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts, Penland School of Crafts, the Santa Fe Art Institute and received a fellowship to be in residence at the Vermont Studio Center.
To grapple with the sixth mass extinction and climate breakdown, she completed a Permaculture Design Course in 2018, Fritjof Capra’s Systems Thinking course in 2019 and became part of the Earth Regenerators Study Group in 2020

Tara Daly is a Californian sculptor working in ceramics who makes paintings and textiles in material driven processes that explore power, collapse and connection. She has exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Richmond Arts Center, Contemporary Craft Center among other non-profit art centers and galleries nationally.


A graduate of the Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture and the San Francisco Art Institute, Tara has been an artist in residence at Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts, Penland School of Crafts, the Santa Fe Art Institute and received a fellowship to be in residence at the Vermont Studio Center.
To grapple with the sixth mass extinction and climate breakdown, she completed a Permaculture Design Course in 2018, Fritjof Capra’s Systems Thinking course in 2019 and became part of the Earth Regenerators Study Group in 2020

Tara Daly is a Californian sculptor working in ceramics who makes paintings and textiles in material driven processes that explore power, collapse and connection. She has exhibited at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Richmond Arts Center, Contemporary Craft Center among other non-profit art centers and galleries nationally.

applied contemporary
craft gallery
@applied_contemporary
473 25th St # D, Oakland, CA 94612