Eri Kato

Winner Challenge

2023

Eri Kato was born in Aichi, Japan, in 1967. After completing her studies at B Semi Schooling System in Kanagawa in 1994, she began a consistent artistic journey focused on the transformation of ordinary materials into poetic visual structures.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in Japan, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Korea, Iran, and Italy. Notable exhibitions include the Biennale Internationale d’art non objectif de la ville de Pont de Clair (France, 2023), DelicaARTessen 20 at Galleria Esther Montoriol (Barcelona, 2021), and the Chelsea International Fine Art Competition finalists exhibition (New York, 2019).

Eri’s work has received numerous distinctions, including the 4th Prize at ART UNITED (New York, 2020) and awards at the Japan Antinuclear Exhibition (Berlin, 2013). Her sculptures are part of permanent collections such as Okazaki Shinkin Bank in Aichi, Japan. In 2018 she participated in the EWAAC Artist in Residence in England.

Statement

Growing up in 1970s Japan, during an era of rapid industrial growth and consumerism, I witnessed the disappearance of nature and traditional architecture, replaced by synthetic convenience and disposable goods. The world became filled with objects made cheaply and abandoned easily.

My practice is a response to that loss. I reconstruct what has been discarded — cardboard, scrap wood, leftover materials — to restore value and evoke memory. These fragments carry the traces of touch, use, and time. By highlighting their inherent color and form rather than covering them with paint, I allow the material itself to speak.

Through collage and assemblage, I seek to reveal the quiet dignity of things that once seemed worthless. Art, for me, is a way to remind us of the beauty hidden within what we throw away, and a way to reimagine a more respectful relationship between people, materials, and the world that sustains us.

Why to invest in... Eri Kato’s work embodies the global conversation around sustainability and material consciousness in contemporary art. Her minimalist collages and sculptural assemblages give poetic form to environmental ethics, transforming discarded materials into refined visual statements that bridge Japanese tradition and modern ecological thought.

Collectors and curators recognize in Kato’s practice a unique blend of conceptual rigor and emotional sensitivity. Her work aligns with the growing market for artists addressing sustainability and material reuse, while maintaining a distinct aesthetic rooted in wabi-sabi — the Japanese appreciation of impermanence and imperfection.

Investing in Kato’s art means supporting a voice that transforms fragility into strength, and waste into wonder — an artist whose subtle power resonates deeply with the values shaping the future of art and society.

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