Biography
Yuko Shiraishi (b. Tokyo, Japan 1956) studied at Chelsea School of Art (1978.) She is recognised for her often large and minimal abstract canvases exploring the formal properties of colour and composition. Shiraishi is also known for her architectural and conceptual projects. In particular, in 2009 she created Space Elevator Tea House, a skeletal building constructed from stainless steel tubes and plexiglass replicating an early 17th-century traditional Japanese Tea House but also posing as means of space travel. Inspiration for the project came from Arthur C Clarke’s novel Fountains of Paradise in which the transportation of people and objects into space is made possible on a rigid metal ribbon. In her installation Netherworld (2013), Shiraishi drew parallels between the many layers found in ancient Egyptian tombs and the cyclical life and death of stars and human cells, echoing the Ancient Egyptian belief that life implies death and death implies life.
She has exhibited widely including the UK, Germany, Switzerland and Japan and her works are held in major public collections and museums around the world. These include; Arts Council of Great Britain, British Museum, Government Art Collection, London; Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield UK; Max Bill-George Vantongerloo Foundation, Zumikon, Switzerland; Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen, Germany; McCrory Corporation, New York, USA; Ludwig Muzeum, Budapest, Hungary; The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Ohara Museum, Kurashiki; Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan.