About

Yukiko Abe-Kruithof is a Naarm-based visual artist whose practice spans painting, line drawing, and papercutting, primarily utilising the translucency of watercolour.
Having migrated from Japan as an adult, her work draws on her role as a bridge between cultures and perspectives, informed by her experience of living with multiple families in both countries, alongside a diverse career as a translator, language teacher, and a diplomatic assistant in corporate settings. These experiences allow her to view life from varied perspectives and value true diversity and understanding.
Abe-Kruithof is interested in creating non-judgemental spaces through the neutrality of her work, in response to her own experience with invisible (and visible) challenges. Her subjects are often removed from context, allowing them to exist without label or comparison to others.

She is drawn to the quiet details of everyday life—the shimmering colours of grains of sand or asphalt, the ever-changing shapes of clouds or a passer-by’s garment, the clearness of the water that she feels through her skin when she taps her toes in the ocean, a crease on a human face (aka wrinkle) etc.—all of which she holds as precious.
Captivated by life’s impermanence and its inherent beauty, her work is grounded in close observation and a contemplative approach to making, often emerging from slow, attentive engagement with her subject and surroundings, before, during, and after the act of making. It explores relationships between the self and others—whether living beings or objects—and how mindful attention can soften boundaries, deepen a sense of connection, and transcend separateness.
Her work has been exhibited at the Consulate-General of Japan in Melbourne and SOL Gallery, as well as in group exhibitions across Victoria Australia.