Akio Takamori was born and raised in Japan. Takamori received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1976 and his MFA from the New York State College of Ceramics, Alfred University in 1978. He exhibited his work in the United States, Europe and Asia beginning in the mid 1980s.
Takamori lived in Seattle, Washington where he had an art studio and taught at the University of Washington for 21 years. His career spanned traditional industrial pottery, ceramic slab vessels and larger-than-life, sometimes cartoonish figures. His work drew heavily from his Japanese heritage, and from images from art history and culture. He passed away in 2017 at the age of 66.
Takamori’s work is included in numerous collections including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Ariana Museum in Geneva, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including three National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Grants (1986, 1988, 1992), the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant (2006), and the USA Ford Fellowship (2011).
