Mari Emori Solo Show – Drop by Drop
Exhibition Dates: August 16 – September 27
3rd Saturday Reception: August 16, 2025 | 5–7 PM
Encore Reception: September 20, 2025 | 5–7 PM
Venue: Blue Line Arts
405 Vernon St, #100, Roseville, CA 95678
Artist Statement
Drop by Drop
I’m a ceramic sculptor based in Berkeley, California, creating bold, abstract forms with richly textured surfaces. My Drop Series and Portal Series reflect a deep engagement with nature, transformation, and our shared human experience.
The Drop Series draws from the beauty and power of the natural world. A single drop becomes a powerful metaphor—symbolizing life, the environment, and our profound connection to the forces that sustain us. Each form captures the delicate resilience of water, embodying both vulnerability and strength, survival and renewal.
Building on that theme, the Portal Series explores the transformative nature of change—whether intentional or unexpected. These sculptural forms feature a central opening, a symbolic gateway that invites reflection and evokes the uncertainty and possibility of crossing from one state to another. The portals gesture toward past, present, and an unknown future, offering space for contemplation and emotional resonance.
My practice is shaped by a multidisciplinary background in kimono design in Kyoto, as well as graphic and spatial design in the United States. These influences inform my approach to structure, visual rhythm, and material sensitivity. Each piece is hand-built—specifically coil-built—and finished using one or a combination of techniques such as layered slip, carving, and sgraffito to evoke surfaces inspired by natural textures and traditional craft.
Through my work, I invite you to reflect on time, transition, and our place within the greater rhythm of life. Together, these series create a quiet, tactile dialogue between form and feeling, nature and self.
Artist Biography
Mari Emori is a ceramic artist based in Berkeley, California, and has been an active member of the Berkeley Potters Guild since 2017. She creates her work in a private studio at the Guild. Originally from Japan, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1989. Her creative journey began in Kyoto with kimono design and evolved through floral, interior, and graphic design in the United States.
In 2012, Emori earned a BFA with Honors in Graphic Design from Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) in Boston. After returning to the Bay Area, she discovered her passion for clay in 2014 and began studying ceramics primarily at Chabot College in Hayward, where she resides. She initially focused on pottery with the late Professor Eugene Esquierdo (affectionately known as Skip), and later transitioned to sculpture under the guidance of her mentor, recently retired Professor Clayton Thiel.
Emori’s multidisciplinary background in visual and spatial design continues to inform her ceramic practice through a shared foundation of precision, structure, and storytelling. Time spent hiking and observing nature plays a vital role in her creative process, offering endless inspiration in its textures, patterns, and quiet wisdom.
Her work has received national recognition, including Selections from the Crocker-Kingsley Exhibition 2025 at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento—one of only seven works chosen from more than 2,500 submissions—and First Place in Off Center 2023, an international ceramic art competition hosted by Blue Line Arts. Her sculptures have also been exhibited at notable institutions such as the de Young Museum in San Francisco, The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, and the Workhouse Arts Center in Virginia.
She currently serves as Board President of the Association of Clay and Glass Artists of California (ACGA), a statewide nonprofit organization with over 350 members. In this role, Emori advocates for artists, supports community-building initiatives, and works to elevate the visibility of clay and glass art across California.
Instagram: @emoriceramics
Facebook: facebook.com/memori