Inner Landscapes
It is an initial spark, my personal enthusiasm that determines what artworks I select for an exhibition and which artists I wish to represent in my gallery. Such a spark was kindled when I first encountered Lena Takamori’s works, and my enthusiasm for her work has remained unwavering to this day. I am very pleased to say that the visitors to her exhibitions have concurred with me; so much so that her works have since found their way into private and public collections.
I first met Lena Takamori, the daughter of Vicky and Akio Takamori, when I travelled to Seattle in 2017 to pay my last respects to Akio Takamori on his memorial party. During my stay, I was often together with Vicky, Lena and her brother in Vicky’s home or in Akio’s studio. It was then that I saw two woodcuts by Lena that I found impressive and a few ceramic pieces that instantly piqued my interest. I absolutely wanted to see more. In the following months, Lena assisted her mother in the task of cataloguing Akio Takamori’s art estate, while continuing with her own work, creating ceramic vessels and sculptures in her father’s studio. She promised to keep me informed about new developments in her artwork.
Lena Takamori kept her word and, thus, in 2020, at what was her first solo exhibition, she showed _Inner Landscapes_ figures and landscapes in my gallery. 2021 she participated in the exhibition SHANGRI-LA with the two vessels _Moss Landscape_ and _Soft White Landscape_. Her second solo exhibition _The Shadow in My Mouth_, once again with figures and landscape shapes, opened late 2022. In 2023, in the exhibition ISLANDS OF DESIRE, she showed the figure Stepping Out Of Dress_ and in 2025, in the exhibition UNKNOWN PLACES, the two landscapes _Mountain And Cloud_ and _Cloud_.
This brief introduction showcases the ceramic spectrum within which Lena Takamori works: these are vessels, figures, and landscape depictions, whereby these categories are not always clearly delineated, and at times overlap. Thus, the recumbent and upright heads can have aspects of a landscape over which one’s gaze can wander, as for example in _Ground_, _Waking_ or _Sleeping with Dots_. They appear emerge from the ground or to melt into it. In these pieces, the emotional expression of a landscape merges with that of a human face.
The artist finds the inspiration for her works in photographs and paintings, as well as in her everyday life. Observations, experiences and memories are often the source materials for her works. Lena Takamori uses her hand-built vessels, her figures and the landscape forms like a canvas or a sheet of paper, as a base for her impressive and virtuoso painting work, thereby skilfully combining the three-dimensional with the two-dimensional.
Lena Takamori’s works often remind me of the medium film, as she implements its techniques, such as close-ups, long shots or strategic lighting, to tell a story, stir emotions and to create a specific atmosphere. The landscapes on the vessels are like film loops. One has a sense of someone standing on a high lookout point and enjoying a panoramic view. These part comforting and part disquieting scenes could well serve as designs for film sets. The figures seem like stills from a film. They show a snapshot, freeze motion.
Space, movement and time are the unifying elements of the various forms of expression implemented by Lena Takamori. In the landscape depictions with the rainclouds, she manages in an astounding and distinctive manner to bring together space and movement in one work. The heads, painted in a gestural and vivid manner, seem at the same time present and absent, while inhabiting their own inner spaces. Many of the full-length figures are caught in motion, occupied with a task. _Woman with Bags_ seems to be on her way home after having done her shopping. _Bath_ shows a mother who is drying her baby after a bath. Holding the towel between her teeth, she cradles the baby in her arm. With _Stepping Out of Dress_ Lena Takamori has—to provide one last example—captured an intimate, usually private and at times erotic moment of undressing.
Whether they are heads or full-length figures, the portrayed characters are never unapproachable; that would not align with Lena Takamori’s personality. With their gaze turned inwards or occupied with a task, the figures do however evade direct contact and demands from without, thereby preserving their secret.
Lena Takamori follows her own artistic path, regardless of current trends in the artworld. Her works are expressions of her knowledge and awareness, her understanding and interpretation of cultural and individual experiences. They convince through their independence and the high artistic quality, found both in the paintings and the sculptural work.
Hanspeter Dähler
