About

Ikuko Iwamoto’s work has an uncompromising purity that is captivating. She describes her work as ‘a world of intricacy and detail, of mathematical pattern and organic chaos, of beauty and repulsion’.

Ikuko studied sculpture in Japan before leaving in 2001, on the recommendation of her tutor, to study in London. She studied first at Camberwell College of Art, before completing her MA in 2006 at the Royal College of Art. Until 2009, the scale of Ikuko’s work was restricted by the size of her kiln. With help from the Crafts Council, she bought and installed a larger kiln which allowed her to experiment on a larger scale. Ikuko has won numerous awards including the Ceramic Review Prize for Innovation at Ceramic Art London. Her work is in several public collections including the V&A and Manchester Art Gallery. In 2019 Ikuko won the Young Masters Maylis Grand Ceramics Prize, developed to celebrate excellence in contemporary ceramics.

Ikuko uses slip-casting technique, and then decorations are applied later on. They are often with dots to give works a tactile texture. In her more sculptural pieces, spikes are frequently used to express fragility. Each dot and spike is applied by hand. In this online event, Ikuko demonstrates how she creates her dotted, thorn and spiky surface decoration with porcelain, clay and slip, as well as showing slip-casting techniques.

This event is supported by Cavaliero Finn.