Born in Aichi, Japan in 1984, Chisato Yasui began her artistic path in oil painting, drawn to the tactile depth of pigment and the intimacy of gesture. Over time, the two-dimensional plane of the canvas began to feel limiting. Seeking a more embodied medium, she turned intuitively to ceramics, where thought, emotion and hand could move freely through form. Clay offered what painting could not: an inner space, a body that breathes. During her graduate studies, the experience of pregnancy profoundly shifted her understanding of creation. In ceramics, the vessel—shaped between interior and exterior—became for her a metaphor for life itself: unseen, yet undeniably present. Rooted in physical intuition but guided by philosophy, her practice engages with Kitaro Nishida’s concepts of “place” (Basho) and “mirror” (Kagami), exploring where consciousness and matter converge. Yasui’s work has received international recognition, including Honorable Mentions at the Grottaglie Contemporary Ceramic Prize (Italy) and the Aveiro International Artistic Ceramics Biennale (Portugal).
Chisato Yasui’s ceramics exist between material and emotion, form and gesture. Her practice unfolds through coiling, a method whose rhythm resonates with her bodily sensibility. The pliancy of clay mirrors the nuances of her emotion, allowing forms to emerge through an open-ended, responsive process. Each work undergoes multiple firings at distinct temperatures, with glazes applied at each stage, producing layered, luminous color that transcends the clay’s physical mass and captures temporal traces of making. Post-firing, aluminium and gold leaf enhance reflection and depth, completing a synthesis of technical mastery and expressive nuance. Finger marks, brushstrokes, and layered color remain as traces of this intimate dialogue between hand, material, and feeling. At the heart of her work lies a duality: inner and outer, organic and structural, natural and composed. Her objects function as thresholds — between material and immaterial, craft and art, process and experience. By combining porcelain and stoneware, glazes and pigments, Yasui expands the expressive potential of ceramics while reflecting on memory, identity, and the embodied experience of being. Color acts as a language of emotion, resonating across and within each sculptural form, uniting technical innovation with spiritual and emotional depth. Spazio Nobile will present her first solo show at the gallery’s Studiolo in September 2026 during Rendez-Vous Brussels Art Week.
