Otis College Faculty Joan Takayama-Ogawa Featured in Craft in America Series on PBS
Tune in on December 27 at 6:00 p.m. PT to see how Takayama-Ogawa addresses climate change in her sculptural works.
Joan Takayama-Ogawa, who heads Otis College’s ceramics program, will be featured in an episode of PBS’s Craft in America series, discussing how she addresses concerns about climate change in her work.
The episode, “Science,” investigates the unexpected intersection between the arts and sciences, spanning
technology, engineering, biology, math, and the climate emergency. In addition to
Takayama-Ogawa, the episode features artists John Luebtow, Karen Nyberg, Joseph and
Sergio Youngblood Lugo, Erik and Martin Demaine, and Chris Maynard. The episode, which
is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, will air on PBS on Friday, December 27, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. PT.
For more than a decade, Takayama-Ogawa has overseen Otis’s ceramics program, which
serves BFA, MFA, and Extension students. In addition to her administrative role, she
teaches across several programs at Otis College and often has taught an advanced course
in collaboration with the Craft in America Center, as well as a course with Jo Lauria
(’90 MFA Fine Arts). Several of Takayama-Ogawa’s former students have won prestigious
awards, including Windgate-Lamar Fellowships and a Jeanne Ward Foundation Scholarship.
Takayama-Ogawa is an accomplished sansei, or third-generation Japanese American. Building on her family’s rich creative history, she studied under the renowned artist and instructor Ralph Bacerra at Otis College, which was then known as Otis Art Institute. In addition to her ceramics education at Otis College,Takayama-Ogawa received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California Los Angeles and her Master of Arts from Stanford University. She then went on to develop work that used ancient Japanese ceramic forms as a guide in creating contemporary pieces that utilize decoration and imagery of an American lifestyle. She continues to push the boundaries of ceramics by integrating clay with digital and rapid prototyping technologies.
Her expansive, decades-long practice often references or responds to various art histories and practices, as well as current events and global issues ranging from 9/11 and the COVID-19 pandemic to unfolding environmental catastrophes. “I think about tipping points way too early for people to understand, usually warning of disasters in the making,” she said in an interview with Otis College. She served as a Pasadena Design Commissioner and on the Board of Directors of the American Museum of Ceramic Art. Takayama-Ogawa has been published in over 30 books and magazines, and in 2004 she was Otis’s Teacher of the Year and Commencement Speaker.
“‘Obsessed’ and ‘focused’ are good words to describe my practice and teaching. Almost
every series I’ve done was once an Otis Liberal Arts and Sciences, Creative Action,
Product Design, or ceramic assignment or experience,” Takayama-Ogawa has said of her
work, adding that Otis has been essential in the development of her clay career. “I
love the Otis faculty and staff’s work. They always make me a better artist. Otis
is my functional, and, at times dysfunctional family.”
Takayama-Ogawa’s work has been included in solo and group exhibitions nationally and
internationally, including Joan Takayama-Ogawa: Ceramic Beacon, a 30-year career survey presented at the Craft in America Center in 2022. Her ceramics
are in the permanent collections of the Renwick Gallery; Smithsonian Institution;
deYoung Museum Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco; World Ceramic Exposition Foundation,
Icheon, South Korea; Princessehof Leewarden Nationaal Keramiek Museum, Leeuwarden,
Netherlands; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Oakland Museum of California; Long
Beach Museum of Art; American Museum of Ceramic Art; Racine Art Museum; George Ohr
Museum, New Orleans, Louisiana; Hallmark Collection; and Celestial Seasoning Tea Company.
Visit Takayana-Ogawa online.
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