Yukiko Suto

Yukiko Suto was born in 1978 in Kanagawa Prefecture. She graduated with a B.A in Graphic Design from the Department of Design at Tama Art University in 2001, and currently lives and works in Kanagawa.

Her major exhibitions include “The Japan Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition (Curated by Momoyo Kaijima), La Biennale di Venezia” (2018), “Late Autumn Weeds Exhibition” (107 S-CHANF, Switzerland, 2019), and “The Sense of Wonder: into another garden” (Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuka, Japan, 2020). Suto’s works are housed in public collections such as The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Yokohama Museum of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, as well as in numerous private collections across the globe.

1978　Born in Kanagawa, Japan

2001　B.A., Graphic Design Course, Department of Design Faculty, Tama Art University

Lives and works in Kanagawa, Japan.

From old houses and gardens to weeds growing in parking lots, an elementary school swimming pool and so forth, Suto has meticulously painted beautiful scenes of everyday life that she encountered while walking down the street and found herself emotionally inspired by. Her works quietly convey the excitement she had experienced at the time, as well as the way in which she felt even her own heart to have become beautifully rejuvenated.

Her medium of choice is pencil, which she feels most comfortable with. The pencil is a medium that fulfils her various artistic desires from its slightly bluish color to its texture, the effects achieved through rubbing, the faint traces that remain after erasing, and the possibility to draw things in elaborate detail. Suto draws connections between the color of the pencil and her experience of being raised in a residential area lined with grey concrete buildings, while the line drawings themselves are influenced by the comics and anime that she has been familiar with since childhood.

Each motif is carefully captured individually, and the combination of flat landscapes without shadows gives rise to a uniquely oscillating sense of perspective and exquisite reality. The sections here and there that are painted in watercolors are parts that left an impression on Suto, and this coexistence of monochrome and color serves to further incite the viewer’s imagination.

Solo Exhibitions

2023 “Trip - Zurich” Tomio Koyama Gallery Tennoz, Tokyo, Japan

2019 “Late Autumn Weeds Exhibition” 107 S-chanf, S-chanf, Switzerland

2019 “Late Autumn Weeds Exhibition” Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, Japan

2018 “The Hill in Early Spring” NOHARA BOOKS, Clematis no Oka, Shizuoka, Japan

2017 “House Exhibition” Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, Japan

2012 “Flowers and a Small Mountain Exhibition” Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, Japan

2010 “Field Exhibition” Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, Japan

2008 “Potted Plants Exhibition” Take Ninagawa, Tokyo, Japan

2007 “In this Garden --- The Story of the Black Mink, Original Picture Exhibition” GALLERY at lammfromm, Tokyo, Japan

2007 “project N 29: Yukiko Suto“ Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2006 Café d'Art, Kagoshima

2006 “Tokyo Wonder Wall 2005” Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office, Tokyo, Japan

2004 takefloor, Tokyo, Japan

Group Exhibitions

2026 “Gallery Artists Exhibition: Tomio Koyama Gallery” CADAN Otemachi, Tokyo, Japan

2024 “The Possibilities of Linear Expression” The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

2022 “Flower of life” Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuka, Japan

2020 “The Sense of Wonder: into another garden” Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuka, Japan

2018 “The Japan Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition” La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy

2014 “Nostalgia and Fantasy: Imagination and Its Origins in Contemporary Art” National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

2012 “Meguro Addresses: Artists in Urban Life” Meguro Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

2012 “31st Outstanding Rising Artists Exhibition Presented by Sompo Japan Fine Art Foundation” Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan

2011 “Small Good Paintings” Satellite, Okayama, Japan

2010 “Tokyo Wonder Wall 2010” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

2008 “VOCA 2008: The Vision of Contemporary Art” Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2007 “Tokyo Painting: My Little Everyday Sceneries” Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

2007 “THE BIG SHOW 2” Silas Marder Gallery, New York, USA

2006 “The BOICE PLANNING is covered with a profusion of flowers.” BOICE PLANNING, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan

2005 “Tokyo Wonder Wall 2005” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

2003 “Illustration Competition for the Book Design Vol.2 Prize Winner Exhibition” Gallery House MAYA, Tokyo, Japan

Public Collections

The National Museum of Art, Osaka

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

Yokohama Museum of Art

Awards

2012 Excellent Prize of 31st Outstanding Rising Artists Exhibition Presented by Sompo Japan Fine Art Foundation

2005 Wonder Wall Prize of Tokyo Wonder Wall 2005

2005 Yasushi Fujimoto Prize of GEISAI #8

2004 Excellent Prize of the 22nd Choice Award　

2002 Shin Sobue Prize of Illustration Competition for the Book Design Vol.2