Biography & CV
born in 1982 in Hokkaido, japan. lives and works in manila, philippines.
Manila based visual artist , Atsuko Yamagata was born in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Japan. She is basically a self-taught artist. She moved to Tokyo to get into a university, and majored in Indonesian language and cultural study of South Eastern Asia. After taking Bachelors Degree, Yamagata’s interest had been directed to present her thoughts by painting, such as her experiences and feelings in other countries and cultures.
At that time, her theme was about individual aesthesis and how to survive as a woman and Japanese in the world.
In 2012, Yamagata moved to Manila, Philippines, and started her career as a visual artist in full swing.
Naturally she has been thinking what is herself as a Japanese there. She has explored materials which she could find connections between her identity and her aesthesis to the place she lives. She reached to find handmade papers made in plants of the country such as pineapple and banana. Those papers are made by a Japanese paper maker in Northern part of the Philippines.
Since 2015, she has started to use those papers in her artworks.
Another material is old bills of Filipino pesos issued by Japanese military in World War 2. Yamagata presented an installation using them in Vinyl on Vinyl gallery in 2018.
On the other hand, by using ink, glue and handmade paper, she has expressed invisible and ideal lives. Micro lives or creatures /cells or organs she made are considered as sense of body itself. She has unfolded narratives of relationship between physical sense of body as a woman and invisible lives.
Yamagata has had many solo and group exhibitions in Philippines and expanded internationally. For example she selected and participated in Nakanojo Biennale in 2017 and 2019, and participated to some group shows in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Atsuko Yamagata
Curriculum Vitae
<Solo Exhibitions>
2020 Mar “Do you hear it? ”Artinformal, Makati City, Philippines
2018 Nov “Remembrance”Vinyl on Vinyl gallery, Makati City, Philippines
2018 Aug “Uncontrolled Artificiality” Finale Art File, Makati City, Philippines
2018 Jun “Born Softly” MO_Space, Taguig City, Philippines
2018 Feb “Belongingness” West gallery, Quezon City, Philippines
2017 “made roots here” TOWER’S GALLERY, JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
2017 “breathing, breeding, blowout” Art Informal, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
2017 “borrowed scenery” Underground gallery, Makati City, Philippines
2015 “Between Place” Underground gallery, Makati City, Philippines
2015 “Fragmented Histology” SM City Baliwag , Bulacan, Philippines
2013 “Sibuyas” 「シブーヤス」The Artcomplex Center of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
2012 “Ka-Cho-Fu-Getsu” 「花鳥風月」The Artcomplex Center of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
<Selected Group Exhibitions>
2019 “Transcendental” two woman show , Cultural Center of the Philippines, Pasay City
2019 Nakanojo Biennale 2019, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
2019 “The future is Female “ Taksu Singapore, Singapore
2019 “Kahit at Sabit “ Load na Dito , Makati City
2019 “Self portrait as mirror/Mirror as self portrait” Artinformal , Mandaluyong City
2019 Art Fair Philippines 2019, Makati City
2018 Art Fair Philippines 2018, Makati City
2018 Singapore Art Stage 2018 , Singapore
2017 “FORM OUT OF MATERIAL, MATERIAL OUT OF FORM” 3 women show , Galleria Duemila, Pasay City, Philippines
2017 Nakanojo Biennale 2017 中之条ビエンナーレ2017, Gunma Prefecture, Japan
2017 “sheer” curated by Renato Habulan, Eskinita gallery, Philippines
2017 “A Collage Show” curated by Nilo Ilarde, Underground gallery
2017 “recent works” Art Anton, Pasay City
2017 Art Fair Philippines 2017, booth of TAKSU gallery, Makati City
2016 “SMALLS” curated by Nilo Ilarde, Underground gallery
2016 “NASI CAMPUR” TAKSU Bali, Indonesia
2016 Art Fair Philippines 2016, booth of TAKSU gallery, Makati City
2015 “SPEAK SOFT, LISTEN HARD”, Underground, Makati City
2015 “We saw things that others didn’t”, TAKSU Singapore, Singapore
2015 “if Aristotle can’t be your teacher, you have to teach yourself” , Galleria Duemila, Pasay City
2014 “Gen/Ngayon2”, Museo Orlina, Tagaytay City
2014 “Childhood Artifacts”, Museo Pambata, Manila City
2014 “Gen現:Ngayon” NOVA Gallery, Makati City
2013 “hugot” a project of Back to Square 1 Sining Makiling Gallery, Los Banos, Philippines
2013 “domestiCITY” JStudio, Taguig City, Philippines
Education
Course complete in Fine Arts at Musashino Art University , 2012-13
B.A. in Faculty of Foreign Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies , 2005
Awards
2013 Audience prize at Liquitex Art Prize 2013 (Japan)
2012 ACT prize for ARTLABOX2012 award at Art Complex Center of Tokyo (Japan)
Residencies
2019 Studio Residence for Nakanojo Biennale 2019, Japan
2017 Studio Residence for Nakanojo Biennale 2017 , Japan
“Remembering war with art by peso notes in Japanese occupation ” The Daily Manila Shimbun(newspaper), Nov 15, 2018
“Visual Artist Atsuko Yamagata , artworks about immigration in Hokkaido”
Hokkaido News Paper 北海道新聞 Nov 3, 2017
“Nakanojo Biennale 2017” printed an artwork’s photo on OZ Magazine, issued on Sep 2017
“Seeking for being Japanese -Visual Artist Atsuko Yamagata” The Daily Manila Shimbun (newspaper) , Feb 13, 2015
“The Ties of Creativity” AGUNG published by National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Number 1 in 2015,
“Fragmented histology at SM City Baliwag” Philippine Daily Inquirer , Mar 12, 2015