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PROFILE

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brief profile プロフィール

Born 1982 in Hokkaido, Japan. She lives in Gunma Prefecture, Japan and works both in Japan and the Philippines.

Using various materials such as adhesives, handmade paper, embroidery, and fabric, she creates two-dimensional works and installations. She creates site-specific works based on in-depth research into the location. Her recent remarkable exhibitions are  :Solo exhibition "The Landscape They Saw Before They Died" in The Drawing Room Manila, Philippines. In 2023,2019,2017, Nakanojo Biennale, International Contemporary Art Festival in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. In 2024 Fujinoyama Biennale, Japan, In 2022 a group exhibition "OCCURRENT" in Vargas Museum in Manila, Philippines. In 2021, solo exhibitions <Lovable Adorable Cells> in Viento Arts Gallery in Gunma, Japan,   In 2019 two artist’s show with Mervy Pueblo "Transcendental" at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. 


In 2022, she was selected as a finalist of Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2022 in HongKong.


1982年、北海道生まれ。群馬県在住。日本とフィリピンを拠点に活動。

接着剤や手漉き紙、刺繍、布など様々な素材を使用し、平面作品やインスタレーションを制作。場所への深いリサーチからサイトスペシフィックな作品をつくる。 近年の主な展覧会:フィリピン・マニラのThe Drawing Roomでの個展「The Landscape They Saw Before They Died」。2023年、2019年、2017年、群馬県で開催される国際現代芸術祭、中之条ビエンナーレに参加。2024年、富士の山ビエンナーレ参加。2022年、フィリピン・マニラのVargas Museumでのグループ展「OCCURRENT」。2021年、群馬県のViento Arts Galleryでの個展「Lovable Adorable Cells」。2019年、フィリピン文化センターにてMervy Puebloとの二人展「Transcendental」等。

2022年、香港で開催されたSovereign Asian Art Prize 2022のファイナリストに選出。


Exhibition Note by Gwen Bautista for the show "Lovable Adorable Cells" 2022 January, Galerie Stephanie

Atsuko Yamagata’s “Lovable Adorable Cells” explores the understanding of life, human emotions, and all that it encompasses through the investigation of images drawn from microscopic cells. Here, the organisms become representations of sentiments as they are gathered together in a commune-like ensemble. Through painting, the artist engages a process that emphasizes the characteristics of every image and cell as it becomes a representation of universal emotions. Since the pandemic, Yamagata yearns to describe the invisible life present in the world through restaging the deepest and smallest biological units inside our bodies. Every cell that occupies our body contributes to the way we relate to ourselves and the society. In her art-making, Yamagata continues her process of allowing the flow of glue to organically dictate the shape and form in her work as natural elements such as air and water intervene. This manner allows uncontrolled elements in the composition, thus, these imperfections constitute the genuine bearings that make us all human —lovable, adorable, and yet complicated cells inside a body. Hence, we come to acknowledge even the nuisances of living.

In portraying these images, Yamagata points out the equality and universality of emotions as well as the cells that make our body: both looking indiscriminately into race, gender, and socio-economic status. If we really want to make sense of life, then, we simply respect it in all its forms. Another aspect of these works is the presence of flamboyance meticulously rendered in the details tended to every depiction of the cell. At times, they may look the same but they each carry individual characteristics that make each form and color stand out from each other. This is parallel to the way people would navigate themselves in their own society for each may function as an individual, important in the sense of independence, yet purposefully part of a larger scope just as a cell becomes a tissue, a muscle, a body, and a person.

 curated by Gwen Bautista

Artist Statement

I explore understanding the particularities of life or its relativity with human emotion through scientific images such as microscopic images of cells and microorganisms. 

In my art-making process, the flow of glue organically dictates the shape and form of fragments in my works as I submit my mastery of the skill in allowing natural elements such as air and water to intervene and to begin the composition of the work. I select and decide the colors to be used, which in turn define these representations. 

As in the process of dyeing handmade papers, I can plan the streaks but cannot control the result ; hence, they become perfectly imperfect.

The element of uncontrollability is regarded as an important part in my art-making.

 

On the other hand, since moving from Manila to the countryside in Japan, another important theme has been exploring the connection between the past and the present through the ancient land and nature, the history of people’s lives, the folk tales that arise from them, and my own physical sensations.

 

Paper thread and thread have long appeared in my works as symbols of natural objects, but now I use them more and more to add a more layered quality to the world of my paintings.



細胞や微生物の顕微鏡像のようなイメージを通して、生命のサイクル、感情との関連性を探っています。

 

 制作の過程では、接着剤の流れが作品の断片の形態を有機的に決定し、空気や水などの自然の要素を介入させて作品を構成しています。

 

手漉き紙を染める過程も同様で、私自身が結果をコントロールすることはできません。したがって、作品は完全でありまた、不完全になります。

 

制御不能な要素は、私の制作において重要な要素であると考えています。

 

 一方で、マニラから群馬県に移住して以来、古来からの土地や自然、人々の暮らしの歴史、そこから生まれる民話、そして私自身の身体感覚を通して過去と現在のつながりを探り表現することもまた、一つの重要なテーマとなっています。

 

以前より紙糸や糸は作品の中に自然物の象徴の一つとして登場していましたが、それが今、絵画の世界をより重層的に仕上げるために多く用いることとなりました。

Introduced On Galleries / Art Festival website

Exhibitions

Recent exhibitions : 

1.11. 2022 – 1. 25. 2022

“Lovable Adorable Cells”

Galerie Stephanie, Mandaluyong City, Philippines

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