Her work has been exhibited such as Williamsburg Art & Historical Center (Brooklyn NY), Washi Museum (Mino Japan), The Drawing Room (Budapest Hungary), Andrews Art Museum (Andrews, NC), Montclair State University (Montclair, NJ), Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville, VA), Etra Fine Art (Miami, FL), Pinnacle Gallery (Savannah, GA).
Her work is also in numerous private and public collections, including Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, City of Mino, Baylor Medical Center, Hotel Sheraton, St. Joseph's Candler Hospital, and Savannah College of Art and Design.
In 2017, one of Yoko’s paintings came to life in the form of a bus and is still running in Savannah GA, today. She currently lives and works in NY.
Artist Statement
"My grandmother taught me the ancient Japanese belief in which everything has a spirit and today I still hold this value. I especially find connections in material possessions and particular places very special to show moments lost in time, history, or untold stories. I believe these objects each have spiritual connections to specific places and capture this in my work.
Combining drawings, paintings, and collages, I layer mixed realities with the spiritual world interacting in our everyday life. I like to use found objects to build a deeper connection with each creation. They are incorporated with distorted and blurry images resembling how our memory might recall.
Most recent work is a series of drawings composed of specific places captured at that exact moment. Locations are selected by interest and randomly using a NYC map. Each drawing is created using only one NYC city block at a time. I visit and collect as much material and information as possible by taking photos, picking up objects, and talking with people.
I seek out unique attributes to tell a story of its history while capturing the location in the now and further communicate with viewers by leaving some parts incomplete which allows the viewer to determine their own interpretations."
