Yuko Shiraishi (b. 1956, Tokyo) moved to London in 1978, where she studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art. She has lived and worked in the city ever since.
She is best known for her large-scale minimalist abstract paintings, which explore the formal possibilities of colour and composition. While her work is rooted in the tradition of American abstraction and colour field painting, her paintings convey a sensual and evocative painterly language. In her most recent works, Shiraishi creates subtly luminous surfaces through thin layers of paint, punctuated by carefully placed dots and marks. These disrupt conventional spatial perception, offering new focal points and challenging depth. With exceptional sensitivity to hue, tone, and structure, her works are at once visually seductive and intellectually compelling – meditations on the visual language of painting itself.
Alongside her painting practice, Shiraishi is also known for her architectural and conceptual works, which reflect her fascination with architecture, cosmology, and the liminal threshold between dream and reality. Her installation Space Elevator Tea House (2009) merges the proportions of a traditional Japanese teahouse with the speculative vision of space travel. Meanwhile, Netherworld (2013) draws parallels between the layered chambers of ancient Egyptian tombs and the cyclical nature of birth and death.
Most recently, her installation Bunk Bed Odyssey – Parallel Lullaby (2024) was exhibited at Annely Juda Fine Art. The work investigates the dreamlike distance between two individuals sleeping in bunk beds – physically occupying the same space, yet potentially journeying into entirely different dream worlds. As in her earlier projects, Shiraishi draws on visionary imagery, influenced by Borges and the imaginative realm of science fiction.
Yuko Shiraishi has exhibited widely in prestigious institutions across the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. Her works are held in numerous important public collections, including: the Arts Council of Great Britain, the British Museum, the Government Art Collection (London), the Graves Art Gallery (Sheffield), the Max Bill–George Vantongerloo Foundation (Zumikon, Switzerland), the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum (Ludwigshafen), the McCrory Corporation (New York), the Ludwig Museum (Budapest), The National Museum of Art (Osaka), the Ohara Museum (Kurashiki), and the Seibu Museum of Art (Tokyo).
Her solo exhibition Brief Encounter – Gazebo is presented in collaboration with Annely Juda Fine Art, London.
