Junko Yamamoto, a Tokyo-born multimedia artist, has been drawing since the age of three and knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue a career in art. While oil painting has been her primary medium, she also makes prints and produces mixed-media installations. Junko has exhibited at 3331 Arts Chiyoda in Tokyo, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the SAM Gallery, Out of Sight, the Seattle Asian Art Museum, ARTS at King Street Station, the Westcott House in Springfield, Ohio, and the GAS Gallery in Torino, Italy. Her work is held in public and private collections including the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children and Family Justice Center, Harborview Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center, University of Washington School of Medicine, Microsoft, and Google.

She has received an Individual Artist Grant from 4Culture, an Emerging Artist Grant Award from the Allied Arts Foundation, a GAP Award from Artist Trust, and an invitation to the Professional Artist in Residence Program at Pratt Fine Arts Center. She is an active member of a collective of Japanese artists.

In conjunction with her first solo exhibition at J. Rinehart Gallery in August of 2023, Yamamoto will also have a solo exhibition at 4Culture, Seattle WA.

Delving into matters of space and consciousness;

My work contemplates the energy that binds together all of existence, from the vast — the air, the universe — to the microscopic — molecules, cells — to make it one.

Our physical bodies, as well as nature in all its forms — the trees, the plants — are made up of cells, molecules, elementary particles, regardless of their necessity. The interspace between cells that form the human body, and even spaces that look empty at first glance, like a living room’s negative space; might these not all be individual instances of the energy that binds together the existent world?

Though they may seem to exist discretely, individual people’s consciousness and thought are in a certain way connected through space. If we posit that a state of linkage characterizes people’s thought and consciousness, then I should be able to assert that the consciousness and thought existing within myself as a matter of course also constitutes a part of that which connects everything.

These works employ the application of colors and shapes to randomly-strewn fabric objects large and small in multiple layers of printing and feed backing with painting to express time and space, human consciousness and connection with the universe.

The concept All is one — that everything is interconnected — forms the underlying basis for my work.

City of Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, Art Interruptions 2016, Budget $4000, Created temporary art in Rainer Valley neighborhood., Seattle, WA

The Aspen Hotel Group - Hotel Max, Seattle, WA

Children and Family Justice Center, 4 Culture - King County, Seattle, WA

City of Bellevue Portable Artworks, Mini City Hall, Bellevue, WA

Citigroup Private Bank, Seattle, WA

Emery Reddy LLC, Seattle WA

Google Corporate Art Collection, Seattle, WA

Group Health Bellevue Medical Center, Bellevue, WA

Haeger Orthodontics, Maple Valley, WA

The Hideout, Seattle WA

HarborView Medical Center/ UW Medicine, Seattle, WA

Idaho Trust National Bank, Boise, ID

Microsoft Corporate Art Collection, Seattle, WA

Mugitoro, Tokyo Japan

Mulvanny G2 Architecture – Bellevue, WA

Swedish Medical Center Foundation Collections, Swedish Issaquah, Issaquah, WA

Swedish Medical Center Foundation Collections, Swedish Ballard, Seattle, WA

Swedish Cancer Institute, Seattle, WA

Theron Baker DDS Office, Seattle, WA

UW Medicine-Seattle, WA