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Shio Kusaka came to California from Japan to study accounting, but took a class in ceramics to fill her schedule. Clay soon became her passion, and she has been an acclaimed ceramic artist since her first solo exhibition in 2005. Her work is admired for a robust minimalist style: vessels with simple, elegant shapes are invigorated with abstract, often linear patterns created with glaze or cut into the surface.

Kusaka has said of her artistic practice that she celebrates, even encourages, accidents. “It’s kind of like a rolling stop sign. You’re supposed to stop at the stop sign, but you only kind of stop… I am not trying to make it wrong, but I am aware that I’m not right, too.”

“I like the tension that comes with failing.”