Artist: Akira Satake

Akira Satake, NORTH CAROLINA
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STATEMENT
For me, the act of creation is a collaboration between myself, the clay and the fire. Collaboration means finding what the clay wants to be and bringing out its beauty in the way that the beauty of our surroundings is created through natural forces. Undulations in sand that has been moved by the wind, rock formations caused by landslides, the crackle and patina in the wall of an old house; all these owe their special beauty to the random hand of Nature. The fire is the ultimate random part of the collaborative equation. I hope the fire will be my ally, but I know it will always transform the clay in ways I cannot anticipate.

BIOGRAPHY
Akira Satake（佐竹晃）was born in Osaka, Japan and has been living in the U.S. since 1983. In 2003 he relocated from Brooklyn, New York to Swannanoa, 

North Carolina, where he has a wood-fired kiln and a gas kiln. In 2013 he opened Akira Satake Ceramics/Gallery Mugen as his working studio and exhibition space in the River Arts District in Asheville, NC.

RECENT AWARDS, EVENTS, AND EXHIBITIONS
2015
Masterclass Workshop - in Belgium and France
2014
Masterclass Workshop - in France
2013
Peters Valley School of Craft, NJ: two week Anagama wood-firing workshop
Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC: lecture -- “The Tea Ceremony and its Influence on Japanese Ceramics”
2012
SOFA NY
Illinois Wesleyan University: lecture and solo exhibition
2009
Invited artist/lecturer and workshop for Israel pottery symposium
2007
Philadelphia Museum Show: National Award for Excellence in Contemporary Clay
2008-2010
Smithsonian Craft Show
2007-2012
Philadelphia Museum Show
2009-2014
Mint Museum Pottery Invitational

Collections • The Mint Museum and The Phillips Collection