Born in Tokyo, Katsuyo Aoki creates sculptural work using ceramic materials. After completing her graduate degree at Tama Art University, Aoki was drawn to the ornamental, crafted, and narrative characteristics that have been eliminated in the western art movements since modernism. She has repeatedly incorporated them into her artwork using ceramics, the historical material that has close connection to those characters for long. Having various decorative styles as her sources, Aoki elicits complex and intricate yet dissolving like expression from porcelain. Exaggerated external surface implies the inner essence of human beings. Her work questions the audience living today the present state of fundamental human nature, which is closely intertwined with one’s view on life and death. Her sometimes religious artworks, suggesting fantastic narratives, draw diverse imagery to the audience and allure them to an adventure of another spiritual dimension.

Her selected group exhibitions include “CERAMIX Art and ceramics from Rodin to Schutte”(Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, Netherlands, 2015 [Touring La Maison Rouge, Paris/ Musee national de Ceramique, Sevres, France]), “Japanese Kogei: Future Forward” (The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York, 2015) and “New Blue and White” Foster Gallery, 158: (Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston 2013). Museum of Art and Design, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; TAKAHASHI COLLECTION and LIXIL have acquired her works.