Porcelain, 2026
H7 W6 (inches)
Porcelain, 2025
H4.5 W6.5 (inches)
Porcelain, 2025
H5 W3.5 (inches)
You’d better make a bargain and bind him fast and strong
So here’s a ring from Lavell With fondest love for you
Porcelain, 2025
H4.5 W3.5 (inches)
For you are marked as one of those whose heads forever rule their hearts
Porcelain, 2025
H4.5 W6.0 (inches)
Porcelain, 2026
H7 W5 (inches)
King County Public Art Collection, Washington, USA
Ceramic, 2026
H7.5 W6 (inches)
Letters
Letters is a series of porcelain sculptures that explores memory, intimacy, and human connection through the preservation of personal letters collected by the artist.
Working with handwritten correspondence from the past, Matsushita considers the significance of communication beyond the words themselves. A letter is not merely a written message, but a physical trace of one person's thoughts and feelings directed toward another. Even when the identities and circumstances of the correspondents are unknown, the act of writing remains evidence of a relationship that once existed.
Matsushita recreates these letters in porcelain, preserving their folds, textures, and physical characteristics. The transformation from fragile paper to fired ceramic gives permanence to these traces of human connection.
At its heart, Letters preserves the simple fact that someone once thought of someone else. Encountering these intimate exchanges may evoke viewers' own memories of being loved or receiving a letter, opening a space to reflect on the inner lives and experiences of others.
Leaves
Leaves is a series of porcelain sculptures developed through an exploration of the material's physical properties. By rolling porcelain into exceptionally thin sheets, Matsushita gives the material paper-like flexibility, allowing it to be folded, bent, and manipulated in ways that resemble the behavior of paper.
The forms are inspired by childhood memories of rolling, folding, and playing with the pages of notebooks and textbooks. Through the accumulation of these delicate porcelain sheets, familiar gestures develop into complex sculptural structures.
During firing, the porcelain responds to the intense heat of the kiln, bending, sagging, and deforming under its own weight. Although Matsushita establishes the initial structure and conditions, the material's inherent properties play an essential role in determining the final form. The resulting sculptures emerge from a dialogue between artistic intention and the physical behavior of porcelain, rather than from either complete control or chance.
The title Leaves refers both to the pages of a book and to the organic forms that emerge from their accumulation. What begins as a reference to paper gradually takes on the appearance of natural structures, suggesting an unexpected relationship between the artificial and the organic.
Porcelain, 2026
H2.5 W6 D3 (inches)
Porcelain, 2026
H3.5 W5 D2.5 (inches)
Porcelain, 2026
H5 W11.5 D4.25 (inches)
Porcelain, 2026
H2.25 W5 D7.25 (inches)
Porcelain, 2026
H8 W6.5 D2 (inches)
Porcelain, Shoes 2026
Applox. H5 W23 D27 (inches)
Porcelain, 2026
Approx. H16 W24 D1.5 (inches)
Threshold
Threshold is a series of porcelain sculptures inspired by paper chains, a familiar childhood decoration made by connecting loops of colored paper. These simple, repetitive constructions evoke memories of play, celebration, and the temporary spaces children create for themselves.
The series explores the concept of boundaries, both physical and psychological, and their relationship to protection, belonging, and personal autonomy. Drawing on the symbolic function of shimenawa, sacred ropes used in Japanese traditions to mark boundaries between ordinary and sacred spaces, Matsushita reinterprets the paper chain as a structure that defines and protects a personal sanctuary.
Through the repetition and accumulation of porcelain loops, the sculptures transform ephemeral paper decorations into enduring forms. Paper is soft and pliable, yet easily torn or consumed by fire; porcelain is rigid and resistant to fire, yet vulnerable to fracture. Both materials possess their own forms of fragility. This contrast evokes the tension between dreams and reality, between the imagined possibility of a sanctuary and the fragility of its existence in the physical world.
In Threshold, the boundary is not simply a division between inside and outside, but a means of establishing a space in which individual autonomy can exist. The series considers the significance of creating and maintaining such spaces, and the fragile balance between their preservation and destruction.
Saori Matsushita
Saori Matsushita is an artist working primarily with ceramics. Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, she is based in Seattle, Washington. Through material experimentation, her sculptural works explore memory, communication, and the relationship between intention and material behavior. Alongside her sculptural practice, she creates mementos and functional ceramics, drawing on familiar objects, gestures, and everyday experiences.
Education
2016
MFA, Sculpture
Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan
2014
BFA, Sculpture
Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan
Contact
For exhibition opportunities, commissions, collaborations, and other inquiries, please use the contact form below to get in touch.
Artist Statement
I work primarily with ceramics, exploring memory, language, and communication through the physical properties of clay. I am interested in how materials preserve traces of the past and how familiar forms can carry meanings beyond their original functions.
My approach to art was deeply influenced by my experience born and raised in Japan, where I encountered a strongly male-dominated environment. It became important for me to find a way of making art that did not depend on exercising control over others or submitting to someone else's authority. Rather than following established forms simply because they were established, I wanted to develop a practice grounded in my own experiences and questions.
Clay offered me a way to do this. Its capacity to retain impressions, respond to pressure, and transform through heat allows me to work with a material whose final state is not entirely dictated by my intentions. This does not mean surrendering control over the work, but establishing a relationship in which both my decisions and the material's properties have a role.
Working with clay has also been a deeply personal means of release. I think of it as a kind of grounding, drawing away the accumulated tension within my body and helping me remain connected to myself.
Underlying my practice is a continuing concern with freedom from oppression, the relationships between people and objects, and what it means to exist as oneself. Ceramics has become both a means of expressing these questions and a way of living with them.
Solo Exhibition
Saori Matsushita Pottery Solo Exhibition 2019
Gallery Goto,
Tokyo, Japan
2019
Saori Matsushita Pottery Solo Exhibition 2018
Gallery Goto,
Tokyo, Japan
2018
Imaginary Sanctuary
Okuno Building 306,
Tokyo, Japan
2018
MAU Doctoral Program Research Exhibition
Tokyo, Japan
2018
Group Exhibition
Solo Presentation
The Vatican at Studio E,
Seattle, WA, USA
2026
Small Favors 2026
The Clay Studio,
Philadelphia, PA, USA
2026
Here & Now
Gallery 4Culture,
Seattle, WA, USA
2026
Cups For Y’all
Asher Gallery at HCCC,
Houston, TX, USA
2026
Auburn Community Center Gallery Exhibition
Auburn, WA, USA
2024
Seattle Art Fair
Ohshima Fine Art,
Seattle, WA, USA
2022
SHIBUYA STYLE vol.15
Seibu Shibuya Art Gallery,
Tokyo, Japan
2021
Collections
King County Public Art Collection
King County, WA, USA
2026
Publications
Colossal
January 2025
2025
Vogue UK
July–September Issues
2021
© 2026 Saori Matsushita. All rights reserved.
All artworks and images are protected by copyright. Unauthorized reproduction or use is prohibited.