Ayako Kurimoto was born and raised in Japan. The experience of relocating to the United States after high school informs her art, as does the intersection of her American and Japanese cultural identities. 

 

Ayako began exploring art in her undergraduate studies at Fresno City College in California and continued her studies at California State University, Fullerton. She focused on cast metal, glass, ceramic, and mixed media sculpture, earning her BFA in Sculpture in 2015.
 

She learned multiple casting and mold making techniques and focused on studying metal casting. Ayako completed her MFA in sculpture at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale in 2018.

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Now, she is the resident artist at stARTup Studios in Macon, GA and working on origami sculpture, life casting in glass, and ceramic origami objects with paper textures.