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Akira Yagi
Japan, b. 1955
BiographyAkira Yagi, son of the highly regarded avant-garde ceramic artist Kazuo Yagi, was born in the Gojozaka area of Kyoto in 1955. He began working with his father soon after graduating from the Kyoto Prefectural Ceramics Technical Institute in 1977, and before that he had attended Kyoto Keika College, graduating in 1976. The following year, Yagi had his first solo exhibition at the Gallery Maronie, Kyoto, and would go on to have solo exhibitions annually through 1989 and then biannually through 1998. In 1997, the artist received the 15th Annual Kyoto Art Award, and in 1998 he won the Japan Ceramics Society Award. Yagi became even more successful in 2000, when his works were featured in the Japan Ceramic Association Winner Exhibition in Tokyo along with winning the Grand Prize at the 12th MOA Okaka Mokichi Awards. The following year, he participated in the Kyoto Crafts: 1925-2000 show at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto. In recent years, his works have been shown in America as part of the Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for a New Century show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2005) and at Japan Society in New York (2006). In 2007, he had another solo exhibition at the Takshimaya Art Gallery as part of their 100th Anniversary Celebration. Yagi's most recent show was at the Gallery Konishi, Tokyo, in 2010.