Profile

Utako Shindo

Utako Shindo is an artist working internationally in the poetics of untranslatability. Her art embraces ‘transferring’ and ‘centering’ processes, into various forms such as drawing/painting and ceramics/sculpture, and together forming an installation work. Shindo obtained her Ph.D. (2013-2017) through the interdisciplinary Centre for Ideas, the University of Melbourne, as well as her BFA, majoring in Drawing (2006) and MFA (2008) through the Victorian College of the Arts, Australia. She is the recipient of Agency of Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists 2018, for her year-long research residency inspired by Agnes Martin’s practice, at the Forde Visser Archives in New Mexico, USA. Currently based in Japan, making, researching and teaching sessionally at Kyoto Seika University, Joshibi University of Art and Design, and Hosei University.

Curriculum Vitae

Education

2013-2017 Ph.D, The Centre for Ideas, Faculty of the VCA&MCM, The University of Melbourne
2007-2008 Master of Fine Art by Research, Faculty of the Victorian College of the Arts, The University of Melbourne
2003-2006 Bachelor of Fine Art (First Class Honours), The Victorian College of the Arts
2001 Art Preview Course, Bunsai Art College, Tokyo

Solo Exhibitions

2025 Liminal in hand: paper curls like the form of clay, 5.gallery, Santa Fe, USA
2024 Test/Taste Spring, Art Gallery Azamino, Yokohama, JPN
2023 Form Poem, 5.gallery, Santa Fe, USA
2022 the night falls and the day breaks, 5.gallery, Santa Fe, USA
2021 Meeting and Greeting Like Shadows, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo
2020 Attitude and State of Mind (Open Studio Exhibition), Forde Visser Archive Southwest, Santa Fe, USA
2018 Reminiscent of long gone by, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne
2017 - That is, like a brief moment to be filled, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2016 _ where it is here__it does not matter__how I have got here__can I forget, Sutton Gallery Project Space, Melbourne
2015 Mokudoku-目読, Hagiso Art, Tokyo
2014 Destancing for Opening, Perimeter, Melbourne
2013 Pensé en ir de alguna manera - Somehow I thought I'd go, Museo Taller Erasto Cortes, Puebla, Mexico
2013 understanding of misunderstanding, SLOPE, Tokyo
2010 Tsumurumitsumeru-BEHOLD, Youkobo ART SPACE, Tokyo
2009 Miru Milieu -See Site-, Sutton Gallery Project Space, Melbourne
2009 Platform for Performance, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
2009 Waves in the Sea, White Street Project, Frankston
2008 Oscillating landscape, West Space, Melbourne & The Queensland Centre for Photography, Brisbane
2008 Feet through, Conical, Melbourne, Melbourne
2006 A summer daydream, Victoria Park Gallery, Melbourne

Group Exhibitions & Projects

2026 Creativity in many forms, Plaza North Gallery x Tokyo University of the Arts, Saitama, JPN
2025 Sushi Shisu, co-curated by Yuko Mohri and Naoya Ito, Astoria Bar and Barn, Ibaraki, JPN
2025 To Make Living, 5.Gallery, Santa Fe, USA
2025 The World to Come, co-curated by Dr. Elizabeth Presa, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo, JPN & George Paton Gallery, Melbourne, AUS
2024 Geidai Next 2024 - Tokyo University of the Arts, Yamanote Line Museum Ueno Station Galerie, Tokyo, JPN
2023 Who live for a day and expire, 5.Gallery, Santa Fe, USA
2022 Megacosm, curated by Cūrā8, Project8.gallery, Melbourne, AUS
2022 Signals, curated by Drawing Tube, NADiff a/p/a/r/t, Tokyo, JPN
2018 geography of space, archaeology of time, with Izabela Pluta, curated by Allison Holland, Australian Centre for Photography Project Space Gallery, Sydney
2018 The 6th Bus Editions Exhibition, Bus Projects, Melbourne
2018 postscript/, with Stephen Palmer, Boxcopy, Brisbane
2018 2018 CCP Fundraiser: the Art of Collecting, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2017 unJapan, curated by Philip Brophy, KANZAN Gallery, Tokyo
2017 Deep Surface, curated by Adrien Allen, Five Walls Projects, Footscray
2017 Vision For Future [17] [noise], gallery TEN, Tokyo / Artspace Mooni, Morioka
2017 Shadow Worlds, Creative Arts Gallery, University of Wollongong, Wollongong
2017 9 x 5 NOW, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, Melbourne
2017 ALIEN/S, curated by Kiron Robinson for PLAY2 (BLINDSIDE Satelite Project), Federation Square, Melbourne
2017 Phantasmagoria, Bogong Center for Sound Culture, Bogong
2016 CCP Salon 2016, Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne
2015 Vision For Future [15] [element], gallery TEN, Tokyo / Artspace Mooni, Morioka
2014 Topologies of Sexual Difference, George Paton Gallery, Melbourne
2013 BankART Artist in Residence OPEN STUDIO 2013, BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama
2013 Finalist presentation for Kawaguchi City New Artists Award, Kawaguchi City Art Gallery ATLIA
2012 Living Everyday by Art, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo
2010-2012 Immanent Landscape, West Space, 2010 / Oyama City Kurumaya Museum, 2011 / Japan Foundation Gallery Sydney, 2012
2011 Galaxy Garden, Sutton Gallery Project Space, Melbourne
2011 Tree Line, Level ARI, Brisbane
2009 Eco Living Festival, Avoca Project, Avoca & Sustainable Fusion Reactions, Ballarat University, Ballarat
2009 Peripheral, RMIT Project Space, Melbourne
2007 Polar, VCA Margaret Laurence Gallery, Melbourne

Residencies

2020 Dec.
-2021 Feb.
Youkobo Art Space Residency, Tokyo
2019 Mar.
-2020 Feb.
The Forde Visser Archive South West, Santa Fe, USA
2017 Bundanon Trust (Bundanon, NSW), Australia
2016 Bogong Centre for Sound Culture, supported Residency (Bogong), Australia
2014-15 Aplus Studio Residency program (Warabi), Saitama
2013 Arquetopia Residency program (Puebla), Mexico
2013 BankART Studio Residency, BankART NYK, Yokohama
2010 Youkobo Art Space Gallery Residency, Tokyo
2009 University of Ballarat Art Residency in association with AVOCA project, coordinated by Jill Orr and Lyndal Jones, Australia

Curation & Coordination

2025- Co-convener/co-lecturer with Dr. Elizabeth Presa: Online seminars and Exhibition ‘The World to Come’, JPN/AUS
2012 Living Everyday by Art, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo
2011 Galaxy Garden, Sutton Gallery Project Space, Melbourne
2010-2012 Immanent Landscape, West Space (Melbourne), Oyama City Kurumaya Museum (Japan) & Japan Foundation Gallery (Sydney)

Publication & Writing

2022 “Excavating an Immanent Future”, Obfuscation& Delineation; Navigating the Boundaries of Australian Contemporary Phography, Ben Hosking and Jack Cannon, eds., Tokyo, 2022, 10-17
2022 “Signals #21”, Signals, Drawing Tube ed., Tokyo: Drawing Tube, 2022, 72-75
2021 「とらえられない/とらわれない海女とアーティスト(exhibition review」Tokyo Art Beat Online, March 2021
2020 “In Praise of Darkness,” Forde Visser Archive online Newsletter, June Issue, 2020
2017 "Understanding of Misunderstanding: Embodying the Untranslatable in Art,” The International Journal of the Image, Issue 2 - Volume 8, LA: The Image_ Common ground research network, 2017, 57-67
2015 “About Microresidence ‘MESHWORK,” Voices from artist, Microresidence Network Website, 2015
2016 The Untranslatable, a Poetic Place, in the exhibition catalogue, _ where it is here__it does not matter__how I have got here__can I forget
2013 ‘Port Journeys and Art’, Port Journeys: Melbourne–Yokohama,Yokohama: Zou-no-Hana Terrace, 2013, 12
2011 “The place where Immanent Landscape is,” Utako Shindo and Hanae Nakao, eds., Immanent Landscape, Oyama: Oyama City Kurumaya Museum of Art, 2011, 10-13
2011 Immanent Landscape (exhibition catalogue), Oyama: Oyama City Kurumaya Museum of Art
2010 “Feet through: Artistic Practice between Space and Place,” Intersections, issue.23, eds. Vera Mackies and Mark Pendleton, Australian National University, 2010

Paper Presentation & Public Talk

2024 “Art and Life’s vessel, poetry and abstraction - after Agnes Martin”, co-lectured with Naha Kanie, Azamino College, Yokohama City Gallery Azamino, JPN
2020
2020 Subtle shades draw an opening path: the poetic work of Agnes Martin’s art, St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, USA
2019 Artist Talks: Winter Edition, (organized by ‘Artist Talks’/Nick West), Good Heavens British Bar Tokyo, Tokyo
2017 Transference in art, Japanese Studies Association of Australia Conference 2017, Wollongong, Australia
2016 Shadowlight, 2016, Australia Society for Continental Philosophy Conference, Melbourne
2016 The Untranslatable, a Poetic Place, PhD Completion seminar, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne
2016 On 'Architecture in Translation: worlds to words’, at monthly public forum PROCESS, Loop Bar, Melbourne
2015 The Second University Tokyo Workshop on Philosophy of Perception, Tokyo
2015 The Translation and Intercultural Research Seminar Series, Monash University, Melbourne
2014 The Topologies of Sexual Difference Luce Irigaray Circle Conference, Melbourne
2014 The 5th International Image Conference, Berlin
2014 VCA/MCM (the University of Melbourne) Post Graduate Symposium, Melbourne

Grants, Awards, & Scholarship

2021 Agency of Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, COVID-19 resilient fund
2018-2019 Japanese fellow, Japan-United States Exchange Friendship Program in the Arts
2018-2019 Agency of Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists
2016 The Australian Artists' Grant, National Association For The Visual Arts
2016 Best Landscape Award, Center for Contemporary Photography Salon 2016
2013 Australian Postgraduate Award
2013 Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mexico, Scholarship for Art Creation
2013 Shortlisted for Kawaguchi City New Artists Awards (Japan)
2011 Australia-Japan Foundations Funding for Immanent Landscape Project
2010 City of Melbournes Art Project Grant & Arts Victorias Presentation Grant
2009 Finalist for Keith and Elizabeth Murdoch Travelling Fellowship
2008 Japan Foundation Sydney, Local Grants
2007-2008 Melbourne International Fee Remission Scholarships (MIFRS)
2006 Athenaeum Club Visual Award (acquisition)

Collections

- Epworth Hospital Art Collection
- Athenaeum Club Collection
- Private collections

Bibliography

Yuhko Kawakita 'Clay and Ceramics in Utako Shindo’s Art', Room for Future Memories Online, June 12, 2022
John Yau 'Shadow Play and the Art of Utako Shindo,' Hyperallergic, April 6, 2022
Linda Swanson 'Youkobo Art Space: Overlapping Tendencies,' Openhouse Magazine Online, June 2021
、Meeting and Greeting Like Shadows 、2021
Linda Swanson 'Bending Over Shadows: lengthening and lingering the line,' Meeting and Greeting Like Shadows 、2021
Linda Swanson 'Attitude,' Forde Visser Archive Newsletter, June Issue, 2020
Melissa Miles & Robin Gester 'CROSS-CULTURAL (MIS)UNDERSTANDINGS: INDEPENDENT PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE THE 1980s' in Pacific Exposures -photography and the Australia-Japan Relationship, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 2018, pp191
Kathleen Linn 'Geography of Space, Archaeology of Time, Izabela Pluta & Utako Shindo', Art+Australia Online (Discussions / Discursions), Dec 2018
Angela Connor 'Interview with Utako Shindo’, online publication Fierce Latitude, May 2017
Dan Rule 'Poetic gestures reward the patient audience’review in The Age Newspaper, 01/04/16, Melbourne
Dr. Katsuhiko Suganuma 'Art of [dis]-articulation', exhibition catalogue, Sutton Project, 2016, Melbourne
Dr. Yoko Akama ‘Attuning to MA(between-ness) in designing’, The 13th Participatory Design Conference Vol.2, ACM: New York, 2014, pp.21-24
Julie Davies & Alex Lizkalla retrospective publication, Hosting: Ocular Lab Inc. 2003-2010, 2012, Melbourne
Paul Nolan Immanent Landscape, Arts Hub, 31/03/2012
Dan Rule Artists Scour an Immanent Landscape, Broadsheet, 30/03/2012
Ren Fukuzumi Immanent Landscape, DNP Museum Information Japan artscape, 14/10/2011
Hanae Nakao The expanding Immanent Landscape, exhibition catalogue Immanent Landscape, September 2011
Hisako Hara The people who created an Immanent Landscape, exhibition catalogue Immanent Landscape, September 2011
Dan Rule The Galaxy Garden, The Age, 14/05/2011 & Immanent Landscape, The Age, A2 Issue, 28/08/2010
Dimple Rajagle performance, un Magazine Issue 3.1 2009
Din Heagney & Helen Hughes Interview: Lyndal Jones, Jill Orr, Utako Shindo, Bindi Cole & Ash Keating, un Magazine Issue 4.1 2009
Gordon Craig untitled, Queensland Centre for Photography Exhibition Catalogue, July 2008
Frances Johnson Diorama Disquiet, The Age, 06/06/08
Vera Mackie Secret Skies, Shared Skies, exhibition catalogue Oscillating Landscape, May 2008

Committee

2007 Programming Committee Member of West Space, Melbourne

Selected Work Experience

2026- Adjunct lecturer: Oil Painting course, Department of Fine Arts, Faculty of Art, Kyoto Seika University
2025- Adjunct lecturer: Liberal Arts Subjects, Graduate School, Joshibi University of Art and Design
2024-2025 Guest lecturer: Printmaking course, Graduate School of Arts, Doctoral Course, Kyoto City University of the Arts
2024-2025 Adjunct Tutor and Instructor: Global Art Practices, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
2023- Adjunct lecturer: Advanced Topics in Contemporary Art, Global and Interdisciplinary Studies, Hosei University
2022-2024 Adjunct Education and Research Assistant: Global Art Practices, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts
2022-2023 Adjunct lecturer: the Concentration in Art and Culture, Joshibi University of Art and Design
2018 Adjunct lecturer at Joshibi University of Art and Design, Tokyo
2013 - Freelance Interprater and Translater for art related public talks and publications
2011-2013 Assistant cordinator for Gallery and Residency Programs, Youkobo ART SPACE, Tokyo
2011-2013 Coordinator for Port Journey Yokoham-Melbourne, ZOU-NO-HANA TERRACE (Yokohama) & West Space (Melbourne)
2011 Assistant producer for Alexander Kershaws project Fantasticology Tokyo: Faults, Flesh and Flowers, Tokyo Wonder Site, Tokyo
2009 Assistant translator in preparation of Alex Rizkallas project for Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2009, Niigata
2006 Interpreting artists talks and volunteering for Rapt! 20 Contemporary Artists from Japan, Melbourne
2002-2008 Assisting Mizuma Gallery (Tokyo) 02 & 04, MEM Gallery (Osaka) 08, at Melbourne International Art Fair