Born in Suita City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, in 1980.
Mariko Matsushita began writing numerous poems as her first form of expression in early childhood, to cope with and comprehend sexual violence.
She decided to pursue art, seeking to explore truth and an “external faucet”.
In 2004, she graduated with a degree in oil painting from the Kyoto City University of Arts.
While working at a factory, she resumed painting. Her body of work including Margarita 7 won the Grand Prix at the 2nd CAFFA 2016 (Contemporary Art Foundation Artist Award).
The next year, during the residency at the Delfina Foundation in London, she interacted with female artists from India, Peru, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and so forth. She later visited
Auschwitz and the Red House in the Philippines among others, where she produced paintings.
In 2020, she publicized In the Honest
Word of Love, inspired by Svetlana Alexievich, and in 2021, The Human Voice, including Friday, named after J.M. Coetzee’s book, making an important turning point.