Artist Statement
I have conflicting emotions about making art. First, making is a lot of fun, and having fun is important to me. Second, I have an urge to make something, and I feel it is my mission to make something worthwhile. I see myself as one specimen of one given moment of one living thing. Creating is a way for me to make connections among random events and ideas in life. Instead of analyzing and explaining in literal language I want to explore thoughts and emotions through building tangible objects using my hands. Things like frustrations toward time, the memory of a seaside town, a desire to be somewhere else, a strange feeling when facing a medicine cabinet alone in someone else’s bathroom.
— Yuko Nishikawa
Bio
New York based Yuko Nishikawa has been actively producing ceramic objects, both sculptural and functional since 2014. Her work has been exhibited in New York City and Milan. She has collaborated with and developed artisans collections with Calvin Klein Home, The James New York, and Anthropologie.
Originally from Japan, she received her B.F.A. in Interior Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She now devotes herself full-time to her ceramic after a decade of designing lighting and furniture for the luxury home furnishing brand Donghia Inc. where her chandelier and table designs won Interior Design Magazine’s Best of Year Award in 2013 and in 2014. Prior to her role as a industrial designer she worked as an interior designer for leading interior design studios such as Clodagh, Jeffrey Bilhuber and Alexandra Champalimaud.
She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, hosting monthly artists talks in her studio named Forest.