Atsuko Yamagata

b. 1982, Hokkaido, Japan

Atsuko Yamagata was born in Sapporo City, Hokkaido, Japan. Lives and works in Manila, Philippines. Atsuko Yamagata has started her career as a visual artist since 2006 when she lived in Tokyo. She moved to the Philippines in 2012 and her activities have expanded more and more in the art scene in Manila. She has been participating in numerous exhibitions mainly in the Philippines, also in Japan, Indonesia and Singapore.

Yamagata is basically a self-taught artist. She received B.A. Faculty of Foreign Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, especially she majored in the Indonesian language as part of a cultural study of Southeast Asia. After years, she entered Musashino Art University in Tokyo to study fine arts and took some courses for a year.

In recent years, she had many solo exhibitions and joined remarkable group exhibitions such as three solo exhibitions in 2018, “Uncontrolled Artificiality”, “Born Softly” and “Belongingness”. While in 2017 she had her solo exhibition titled “Breathing, Breeding, Blowout ” and “Borrowed Scenery”. She had another solo exhibition in her hometown Sapporo City in 2017, “Made Roots Here” at Hotel Nikko Sapporo.

She was selected as a participating artist in Nakanojo Biennale 2017 in Gunma Prefecture(Japan) and did residence there to make artworks for the Biennale.

In 2022, Atsuko was a finalist in The 2022 Sovereign Asian Art Prize Exhibition in Asia-Pacific and recently had an exhibition at Chiangmai Art Museum and Hunsa Community Open Space.