Atsuhiko Misawa is one of the most representative leaders of modern Japanese sculpture. He was born in Kyoto in 1961 and got a Master's degree in Sculpture from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1989. He has worked in the Sculpture Department of Musashino Art University since 2006.



Misawa is best known for the series Animals, which he began in 2000, featuring life-sized animals carved from camphor wood with powerful chisel strokes and painted with oil paint. The subjects range from familiar creatures like cats and dogs, to enormous ones such as bears and elephants, and imaginary beasts like the Pegasus. Misawa's animals have a truly powerful presence and lifelike expressions that arouse a range of powerful responses in the viewer.



Since 2007, he has held solo exhibitions in museums around the world: Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa (2007), Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art (2007), Mie Prefectural Art Museum (2013), Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto (2017), The Shoto Museum of Art, Tokyo (2017), Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa (2018), Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art & Design (2018), and Abeno Harukas Art Museum, Osaka (2020-2021), etc.