Takako Yamaguchi

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Takako Yamaguchi
Born1952 (age 72–73)
Okayama, Japan
EducationUniversity of California at Santa Barbara, M.F.A. (1978)
Known forPainting

Takako Yamaguchi (born 1952, Okayama, Japan) is a visual artist based in Los Angeles, California.

Contents

Background

Born in Okayama, Japan, Takako Yamaguchi has lived and has long lived and worked in Los Angeles. [1] During the early years of her practice, Yamaguchi moved between Japan, the U.S. Yamaguchi first studied at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan (1971–1973). Shereceived her B.A. from Bates College in 1975, and went on to get her MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1978. [1]

Visual practice

Yamaguchi has been associated with the U.S.-based Pattern and Decoration movement of the 1970s. Her work embraces what has historically been disfavored by the formal reductivism of Euro-American abstraction and modernism. [2] [3] [4] Decoration, fashion, beauty, sentimentality, empathy, and pleasure–forms and styles displaced by modernism and the contemporary artistic zeitgeist, are central aspects of Yamaguchi's painting practice. [5] Through her proposed "poetics of dissent," Yamaguchi recuperates and mixes various visual traditions including Mexican Socialist Muralism, American Transcendentalism, Art Nouveau, and Japanese decorative arts. [2] [3] [6] Her syncretic approach challenges the binary of an ostensibly race-neutral kind of International Modernism and the aesthetics of local, national and ethnic identity. Yamaguchi's "abstractions in reverse," a current that runs throughout the artist's practice, works backwards in the traditional historical framework of 20th century western art, from abstraction back towards illusionism. [3] [7] Her work involves the exploration of the semi-abstract, as well as focusing on pattern and surface quality through the use of bronze leaf. [8]

Exhibitions

Yamaguchi has had solo exhibitions at Ortuzar Projects, New York (2023); [9] Ramiken Crucible, New York (2021); [10] Egan and Rosen, New York (2021); STARS Gallery, Los Angeles (2021); [4] as-is.la, Los Angeles (2021) [4] (2019) [11] (2018); [12] Cardwell Jimmerson Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2008); Nevada Museum, Reno (2007); Kathryn Markel Fine Arts (2007); and Jan Baum Gallery, Los Angeles (2006). Her work has been exhibited in several museum surveys including The Ocean, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2021 [13] ); With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985, [14] Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles [15] and Hessel Museum of Art, Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (2019–2021); Transcendence: Abstraction & Symbolism in the American West, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah (2015) [16] ; California Echoes: Women Inspired by Nature, [17] Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, California (2007); and L.A. Post-Cool at the San Jose Museum of Art, California (2002). [18]

In Yamaguchi's most recent works at the Whitney Biennial 2024, her newest works comprise zigzags, tubes, and lines that is related to the weather and other inspirations from nature. She calls "abstraction in reverse", incorporating patterns such as clouds and waves but in a way that is expressed through an artist's vision and not with nature itself. [19]

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles is presenting a solo exhibition, “MOCA Focus: Takako Yamaguchi” during the 2025-26 season. [20] [21] The exhibition was accompanied by a catalog of the same name with text by Anna Katz. [22]

Awards and honors

In 2008, Yamaguchi was awarded with a fellowship for visual art from the California Community Foundation. [23] Yamaguchi received an Anonymous Was a Woman award in 2024, [1] as well as an grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Art [24] and a Stepping Stone grant from the Trellis Art Fund in the same year. [25] [26]

Collections

Yamaguchi's work is in the collections of the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art; [16] Long Beach Museum of Art, California;[ failed verification ] Eli Broad Family Foundation, Los Angeles; the Bates College Museum of Art, Maine; [27] Art Bridges Foundation, Arkansas; [28] the Nevada Museum, Reno; [29] [ failed verification ] the Lynda and Stuart Resnick Collection, Los Angeles; and Deutsche Bank, New York, among others.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "2024 recipients, Takako Yamaguchi". Anonymous Was a Woman. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  2. 1 2 Takako Yamaguchi, "Alumni in the Arts Lecture Series: Takako Yamaguchi ’75." Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, October 15th, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 "TAKAKO YAMAGUCHI - Artists - Ortuzar Projects". www.ortuzarprojects.com. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  4. 1 2 3 "Takako Yamaguchi – Stars" . Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  5. ↑ Jones, Mary (2021-11-02). "Takako Yamaguchi: 7 + 7". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  6. ↑ Kron, Cat (September 2021). "Takako Yamaguchi: Stars, Los Angeles 15 May – 10 July" (PDF). ArtReview.
  7. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi | 2008 Fellowship for Visual Artists". California Community Foundation. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  8. ↑ Albrecht, Elliot. "The irresistible ascent of iconoclastic painter Takako Yamaguchi". Art Basel. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  9. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi: New Paintings - Exhibitions - Ortuzar Projects". www.ortuzarprojects.com. Retrieved 2023-06-07.
  10. ↑ "- Takako Yamaguchi". www.ramikencrucible.com. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  11. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi: New Paintings". as-is.la. 24 October 2019. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  12. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi: New Paintings". as-is.la. 8 January 2018. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  13. ↑ "The Ocean". www.kunsthall.no. 28 August 2021. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  14. ↑ "With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985". CCS Bard. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  15. ↑ "MOCA presents Takako Yamaguchi's first solo museum presentation in Los Angeles" (PDF). Museum of Contemporary Art. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  16. 1 2 "Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art - NEHMA | Transcendence". artmuseum.usu.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  17. ↑ "Women and the world". Orange County Register. 2007-04-15. Retrieved 2023-04-28.
  18. ↑ "Post-Cool". San Jose Museum of Art. 23 November 2002. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  19. ↑ "Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing". whitney.org. Retrieved 2024-05-31.
  20. ↑ "MOCA Focus: Takako Yamaguchi". www.moca.org. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  21. ↑ "What Does It Feel Like to Be Called an Emerging Artist at 72? Ask Takako Yamaguchi". Cultured Magazine. 26 June 2025. Retrieved 10 July 2025.
  22. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi". MOCA Store. Retrieved 2025-06-30.
  23. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi". California Community Foundation. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  24. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi". Foundation for Contemporary Art. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  25. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi". Trellis Art Fund. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  26. ↑ "Trellis Art Fund Announces new $20,000 Stepping Stone grants". Artforum. 15 January 2025. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  27. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi, Connaisseur of Chaos". Bates Museum of Art. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  28. ↑ "Takako Yamaguchi, Untitled". Art Bridges Foundation. Retrieved 24 October 2025.
  29. ↑ "Blog". Nevada Museum of Art. Retrieved 2023-04-28.

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