Yukako Shibata was born in Otaru, Japan in 1972. She pursued her art studies in England, finally completing her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2005. Blending sculpture, painting, and installation, Shibata's abstract works play with light, shadow, and colour. Her creations, inspired by minimalist influences yet distinguished by its handcrafted textures and imperfections, transforms ordinary materials into serene, contemplative pieces.
Artist Yukako Shibata was born in Otaru, a hilly harbour city on the island of Hokkaido, Japan in 1972. Immigrating to England, She earned her BA in Fine Art from the City & Guilds of London Art School (1995–98), a Post Graduate Diploma from Byam Shaw School of Art (1998–99), and her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2005, further enhanced by an Artist's Residency in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, in 2003. Her extensive education laid the foundation for a practice that spans abstract sculpture, painting, and installation, merging these disciplines into a distinctive hybrid form.
Shibata's creations often feature painted surfaces that are deliberately obscured to reveal only their reflections, engaging viewers in a slow process of discovery. This approach is underscored by her interest in the placement and viewing points of her work, emphasising the relationship between the artwork and its environment as a cohesive whole. Reflecting on this, Kamini Vellodi, artist, writer, and lecturer, observed: ‘Shibata’s objects seem to want to evade definition, preferring to exist as ‘sensory’ objects, abstracted and nameless. Seductive in their ultra-refined surfaces and pure, glowing colours, like fruit of some otherworldly tree, the quasi-organic shapes suggest passages of budding, flowering and even egg-spawning’ (artist’s website). Shibata takes inspiration from many sources, from the simplicity of geometric architecture to the transient colours of nature. She is fascinated by elusive colours that leave a lingering impression, yet are difficult to pinpoint or recall precisely. Her creative process is one of balance between control and chance, allowing materials and forms to guide her towards the final outcome. This process is reflective of a dialogue with the materials themselves, which she believes possess their own will.
Her fascination with surfaces is deeply rooted in her childhood experiences in Hokkaido, where she meticulously sculpted snow into polished, marble-like textures. This early influence remains evident in her art, where she achieves a similar purity and harmony through smooth, reflective surfaces. Shibata's approach transforms materials into serene and contemplative objects, connecting her personal history with the viewer's experience. Her work embodies the subtle interplay between memory, materiality, and the pursuit of beauty, highlighting her unique perspective on the tactile and visual aspects of her surroundings. While acknowledging the influence of Minimalist artists such as Donald Judd, Dan Flavin, and Robert Irwin, Shibata distinguishes her work through its handcrafted imperfections and intimate scale. She respects the historical context of Minimalism but prefers a more hands-on approach, celebrating the beauty of simple objects and the power of abstract expression. Shift: Infinite Diamonds (2022) explores Shibata's fascination with the potential of basic materials and a minimalist visual language, focusing exclusively on the use of straight lines to construct layered diamond shapes that create a mirroring effect, examining the concept of the mirror not just as a reflective surface, but as a portal to a new mental dimension, capable of unveiling endless possibilities and patterns. By employing double-faced mirrors, the artwork transcends its physical boundaries, allowing patterns to alter and extend infinitely. The artist is captivated by the dynamic interplay of reflections, the reversal of colour order by the mirror, and the seemingly boundless patterns that emerge, highlighting the transformative power of simple geometric forms and reflections to generate complex visual experiences.
Shibata’s first solo exhibition, Colour Wrapping, was held at Royal College of Art, London, in 2003, followed by shows at Light Contemporary, London (2006), and The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation (2008). Her 2013 exhibition Colour Shadow at the Lightgallery, London, examined the nuanced exploration of colour reflections and the ‘ethereal, subtle and weightless’ effects they produce when interacting with light and shadow (Chaudy 2013). Featuring three-dimensional works that Shibata described as painted sculptures, the reflection of natural light off the colors painted on the back of each piece cast dreamlike shadows on white walls. Key pieces included Shadowfall: Blue characterised by its hand-drawn circles on an MDF base, creating a bubbly texture and casting a soft, blue reflection that mimics the presence of a hidden light source, while, Circle; emerald was crafted from wood and papier-mâché, finished with smooth plaster and oil paint, layering different colours for a meditative effect. Additionally, Shibata has participated in The Collector Curates at The Hepworth Wakefield (2017) and A Generous Space, Hastings Contemporary (2021). In the healthcare arena, with other artists, including Richard Wentworth, Sutapa Biswas, and Aimee Parrott, Shibata contributed to the visual transformation of Garnet Ward, a dementia care unit in North London and has also produced designs for cushions for Holding Space, a project between Hospital Rooms x Hawser & Wirth London (2023). In 2022 Shibata contributed monumental pearlescent eggs to a public sculpture project at Horizon 120, a business, logistics and innovation park in Braintree, Essex. In the UK public domain, Yukako Shibata’s work is represented in the Royal College of Art collection.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Yukako Shibata]
Publications related to [Yukako Shibata] in the Ben Uri Library