Yuko Shimizu
Yuko Shimizu is an illustrator, fine artist and educator at School of Visual Arts, New York.
Drawing had been Shimizu’s hobby ever since she was a child. However, growing up in a traditional Japanese family, pursuing a path in art was just not an option. After receiving BA in advertising and marketing – the most creative of the practical field – from Waseda University she landed on a position in PR for a big corporation in Tokyo.
It never made her quite happy, and she was in a mid-life crisis at age of 22.
It still took Shimizu more than 10 years before she figured out what she really wanted to do and to save just enough so she could go back to school full time for 4 more years.
So Shimizu came back to New York in 1999, where she briefly spent her childhood, and enrolled in School of Visual Arts (SVA). Shimizu graduated with MFA from Illustration as Visual Essay Program in 2003 and has been illustrating since. She also teaches a BFA Illustration course and occasionally advises MFA students at SVA.
She works in a studio in Manhattan, a space she shares with two artists whom she considers as her ‘New York family’. Shimizu has not gotten into mid-life crisis since she became an artist.
Whenever she has time, Yuko Shimizu loves to travel to different cities and countries to lectures at art schools and events, and to meet with other artists, professors and young aspiring illustrators to get inspired.
If you like Yuko Shimizu, then you'll also dig these posts:
June 3, 2011 | New Events | by Yuko Shimizu |
Come out to a gallery in Soho, New York, on Saturday afternoon and purchase art for your home for a good cause. The one evening event Dear Japan has been organized by a group of Japanese artists who live in New York. It features 170 illustrators and fine artists, and all the works are $200 or under. It’s a small portion of what most of the participating artists would normally sell their work for. Of course, I am donating for this good cause, too. Read more
September 2, 2010 | New Events | by Yuko Shimizu |
Three illustrators from vastly different backgrounds — Sam Weber (Canada), Yuko Shimizu (Japan), and Tomer Hanuka (Israel) — are meeting at the crossroads of a distinct American aesthetic to examine their new-found artistic voices through personal mythologies, broken narratives and remixed identities. Each of the illustrators featured as part of BLOW UP (running at New York’s Society of Illustrators until October 16) created new works to be shown for the first time in this exhibition. Read more
January 8, 2010 | New Illustration | by Zolton |
I love the bold use of colour and playful sense of composition in the work of New York-based illustrator Yuko Shimizu. This one in particular is giving me a sudden urge for triple maple and walnut ice cream, with a generous splash of chocolate on top.
June 17, 2009 | New Illustration | by Zolton |
I love the bold use of color and dramatic thematic overtones that characterises the work of New York-based illustrator, and Lost At E Minor contributor, Yuko Shimizu. This award-winning piece was for Microsoft’s Ultimate PC project, in which artists were asked to create series of five personal works using their PC instead of their Mac to showcase in Microsoft’s new experimental art site.
January 17, 2009 | Cool Travel | by Zolton |
As part of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charity organization whose mission it is to fight poverty in New York City, Lost At E Minor contributor and in-demand illustrator in her own right, Yuko Shimizu — in collaboration with designer Stefan Sagmeister — recently completed an eleven panel mural at PS96 in The Bronx. Read more
October 28, 2008 | Video | 
by Yuko Shimizu 
|
My friend and artist Emily Gearhart just sent me this video. It’s probably the funniest video I have ever seen. Oh, what a great way to remind your friends to vote. You can customise it with your friend’s name and then send it out them. Fun, fun, fun.
August 26, 2008 | Cool Travel | by Zolton |
I’ve worked with the brilliant New York-based illustrator — and Lost At E Minor contributor — Yuko Shimizu remotely for some years now. But despite the fact that we live in the same city, we’ve only met up once — at a group exhibition that she was a part of at a Chelsea gallery. Read more
July 15, 2008 | New Illustration | 
by Zolton |
We checked in with one of our favourite illustrators, Yuko Shimizu, recently: How are you dealing with the mugginess of the New York summer? ‘I am originally from Tokyo, where humidity is a lot higher in general, and summer temperature can go a lot higher’. Read more
April 9, 2008 | New Illustration | by Zolton |
New York-based illustrator, and regular Lost at E Minor contributor, Yuko Shimizu is heading to Philadelphia to give a lecture and attend the opening of an exhibition of her illustrations at The University of The Arts this Thursday. Read more
December 6, 2007 | New Illustration | by Zolton |
I was rulking (half-run; half-walk) through the inner city a little while back, killing time and thoughts with mindless banter (yes, one way conversations have their benefits) when I noticed a grown man crying hysterically on the opposite side of the road to me. Read more
October 9, 2007 | New Events | by Marcos Chin |
A few weeks back, I went to a show at the School of Visual Arts Gallery in Chelsea, New York to see an exhibit called Super Phat. It was a multimedia art presentation featuring the work of over 40 of SVA’s Japanese alumni and alumni living in Japan. Among them were two large and gorgeous drawings by my friend and studio-mate, Yuko Shimizu. Her work never fails to astound me. Yuko’s pieces entitled The Wild Wild Chase and The Rodeo Drive transplants her striped swim-suited characters into a Western inspired realm where they are met by horned and furry hooved monsters. Magnificent. [read an interview with Yuko Shimizu and check out the posts she has written for Lost At E Minor]
September 17, 2007 | New Photography | by Zolton |
Says New York-based illustrator Yuko Shimizu on the work of artist Marilyn Minter: ‘I was extremely lucky to be able to study fine arts with Marilyn Minter as my professor before she became too busy and stopped teaching the course. She was brutally honest about students work, which sometimes made me cry but made me grow like nobody else did. I owe her a lot’. Read more
August 10, 2007 | New Illustration | by Zolton |
New York-based Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu has been featured on Lost At E Minor several times over the past couple of years. I love the sense of drama her work conveys, the apparent colour clashes that somehow gel despite pre-existing rules about their compatibility. We checked in with her to see what she’s been up to of late: ‘I just came back from a week in Georgian Bay in Canada. No internet, no cell phone reception for a week. It was fantastic! Now I am getting ready for a group show at Visual Arts Gallery in New York that opens in September. I am creating two new 40” x 60” drawings. I’m also slowly refurbishing my website here and there’. Read more
Seattle-based design studio, Dumb Eyes, have some awesome t-shirt designs, logos and typography up on their website, all of which showcases their minimalist, brightly colored, and tightly patterned aesthetic. Read more
There is not a medium that UK illustrator Lizzy Stewart cannot wrap around her little finger to make the most beautiful, whimsical images. Read more
An intelligently told, morally complex tale with a raft of unexpected twists, Gone Baby Gone is one of the most original films of recent times. Most films give you a sense of their narrative arc and it is easy to recognise the major plot points. Read more
These twin sixty-story towers to be built in Malaysia feature a combination of ‘continuous, flowing, double-curved perforated surface with a flickering, crystalline, transparent single-curved surface that is triangulated on an enormous scale’. The design by New York-based architectural firm, Asymptote, includes a 400,000 square foot retail section and the Penang Performing Arts centre.
Every year we get a new one, every year we play it safe. So, this year, why not open your mind a little and get hold of one of these tasteless date makers. If nothing else, it’ll be a very good conversation starter. Read more
Several years after they disbanded, one of indie rock’s brightest sparks — Ambulance Ltd — are back. Read more
Now you can take the annoying but fun sport of popping bubble wrap at work, or on a special occasion, onto your tie. This should definitely pass the time if you’re annoyed or you just want to annoy someone. Read more
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Communication prosthesis by Sascha Nordmeyer
This ‘communication prosthesis’ by designer Sascha Nordmeyer is hilarious and awesome. I want to wear one to a job interview.
Pencils made from recycled newspaper
The problem with awesome things like these pencils made out of recycled newspaper is that you almost don’t want to use them.
Get lost in a daydream or a craving for something sweet while gazing at these cool sculptures by Brooklyn-based WiNK WiNK PONY. Made using clay, tree bark, wood, and mossy moss.
Here are a couple awesome pieces by Matt Leines that were recently on display in the Doubting Thomases exhibit at Nudashank gallery in Baltimore. Gives me ideas for Halloween. Read more
Baltimore Mural by Josh Van Horne
My friend Josh Van Horne, a local Baltimore artist, did this amazing mural in our neighborhood that depicts the history of this warehouse-laden area.
On this Virgin Mary HaloTech watch, the dial is a modern version of the nineteenth century art form of lithophanes, carved porcelain sheets that, when lit, deliver astoundingly detailed images. When the pusher is activated, the dial springs to life in 3D. The watch features a light-up dial, LED light, and afterglo effect. Read more
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