Usami Shuri 宇佐美朱理 b. 1980
Sculpture, TOWA 2, 2026
Stoneware
16 1/8 × 13 in. (41 × 33 cm)
With signed wood plate
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Usami Shuri (b. 1980) is a ceramic artist based in Utsunomiya, Japan. She studied ceramic art at BUNSEI University of Art under Hayashi Kōku and the Living National Treasure Miura...
Usami Shuri (b. 1980) is a ceramic artist based in Utsunomiya, Japan. She studied ceramic art at BUNSEI University of Art under Hayashi Kōku and the Living National Treasure Miura Koheiji, and has received numerous awards in juried exhibitions. She established her own kiln in 2018.
In 2023, her TOWA series received the Excellence Award at the 10th Kikuchi Biennial and was recognized as a significant body of work. The series reflects a vision in which human existence and material life circulate through clay over time, expressing continuity, memory, and transformation.
Usami’s practice is based on the idea of creating “vessels” that hold emotions and memories beyond language. She explores unspoken human conditions—pain, hope, solitude, and prayer—and the traces left by time. Clay becomes a medium that absorbs these layers, and through firing, undergoes irreversible transformation, revealing surfaces shaped between chance and control.
Her works are built through a layered process using hand-formed Shigaraki-based clay, slips, iron, and gosu, followed by multiple glaze applications that interact during firing to create complex surface stratification and movement.
In the TOWA series, restrained forms and textured surfaces evoke a quiet tension between light and shadow, emphasizing the physical memory of making. The works suggest a cyclical view of existence, where life and material continuously transform rather than end.
Rather than presenting fixed meanings, Usami’s works function as contemplative spaces where memory and perception quietly resonate with the viewer.
In 2023, her TOWA series received the Excellence Award at the 10th Kikuchi Biennial and was recognized as a significant body of work. The series reflects a vision in which human existence and material life circulate through clay over time, expressing continuity, memory, and transformation.
Usami’s practice is based on the idea of creating “vessels” that hold emotions and memories beyond language. She explores unspoken human conditions—pain, hope, solitude, and prayer—and the traces left by time. Clay becomes a medium that absorbs these layers, and through firing, undergoes irreversible transformation, revealing surfaces shaped between chance and control.
Her works are built through a layered process using hand-formed Shigaraki-based clay, slips, iron, and gosu, followed by multiple glaze applications that interact during firing to create complex surface stratification and movement.
In the TOWA series, restrained forms and textured surfaces evoke a quiet tension between light and shadow, emphasizing the physical memory of making. The works suggest a cyclical view of existence, where life and material continuously transform rather than end.
Rather than presenting fixed meanings, Usami’s works function as contemplative spaces where memory and perception quietly resonate with the viewer.
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