Kiichi Takeuchi is a ceramic artist born in Tokyo, Japan, and based in New York. After computer science and spending more than 25 years in the technology field, he turned his attention to clay through studies in ceramic art at Long Island University. This transition brought his experience with digital systems into a practice grounded in making, material experimentation, and the communal work of firing kilns.

Wood firing is central to Takeuchi’s practice. Through firing and kiln building, he explores how flame, natural ash, heat, and placement shape each piece. His pottery records these interactions in surfaces that cannot be repeated exactly. His research into “Kimono Saggar,” presented at NCECA, investigates customized, semi-open firing containers that influence how natural ash reaches and marks the clay.

Alongside this work, Takeuchi uses digital tools to investigate and share ceramic processes. He leads the 3D Clay Printing Study Group at the LIU Craft Center, exploring connections between data, form, and fabrication. His projects also include three-dimensional scans of anagama kilns, making their structures accessible through interactive models. He has presented at four consecutive NCECA conferences, as well as at the New England and North Carolina Wood Firing Conferences, and has published articles in the NCECA Journal.

Teaching and collaboration extend these interests into a broader community. As an adjunct professor at Long Island University, Takeuchi teaches Introduction to Pottery and Sculpture. He serves on committees for the New England Wood Firing Conference and the Tokyo–New York Friendship Ceramic Competition. Together with Nozomu Shinohara, he received a Japan Foundation grant for “Cross-Cultural Ceramic Education from Shigaraki to New England.”

Takeuchi co-curates the annual wood fired ceramic art exhibition, Fiat Ignis, at Gallery 60 NYC. His work has also appeared in Shino Odyssey at Baltimore Clayworks, The Will of the Kiln at Southern Connecticut State University, and exhibitions at Raynham Hall Museum. Across his studio practice, research, and teaching, he brings an interest in how things work to the open-ended possibilities of clay and fire.