Yu Araki, BFA in Studio Art ’07
“In hindsight, it was the sense of belonging and the shared value system we developed during those years of higher education that mattered most. Those values stay with you and support you.” alum Yu Araki, BFA ’07, shared. Learn more about Yu’s professional journey, from WashU to today, in this spotlight.
Tell us about your work.
I’m an artist and filmmaker, and I also teach undergraduate media art at a university.
What advice would you give a current high school or college student interested in your field?
I followed the advice my mentor, Ron Leax, shared with me during my senior year: continue your practice for at least ten years after graduation. Show your work at least once a year — whether in a group exhibition, a solo show, a screening, or whatever opportunities arise. Commit to it for a full decade, and eventually, something will open up for you. It did for me.
What do you wish people knew about your field? It is incredibly rewarding to see your work shown in different places, even beyond your own country — and sometimes you have the chance to follow it there. The labor of love you’ve devoted yourself to begins to guide you, carrying you to new places. And along the way, you discover that your audience exists in the most unexpected corners of the world.
What skills did you get from a creative education that have helped you in your career?
It wasn’t so much about technical skills per se, but about how much you’re allowed to fail along the way. In school, you naturally want to do well, yet you don’t always realize how valuable failure can be — especially in the creative process. Failure is golden. The more you fail, the further it can carry you down the road — though you rarely see that while you’re still in school.
My experience at WashU was meaningful because I met like-minded friends, many of whom I still keep in touch with today. In hindsight, it was the sense of belonging and the shared value system we developed during those years of higher education that mattered most. Those values stay with you and support you, even when you feel alone in the real world after university. The core curriculum truly developed my “core,” and for that I am deeply grateful.
What did you do after graduation, and how did you get where you are now?
I enrolled at WashU as an international student, then I returned to my home country, Japan, and settled in Tokyo. My parents were living there at the time, so I was basically crashing on their couch. I didn’t know much about the art world in Tokyo, so I started working part-time at one of the city’s most well-known galleries. There, I was able to observe the system and infrastructure behind the art scene.
Eventually, even as a part-timer, I was working five days a week. I was exhausted and didn’t want to do anything on the weekends, so I decided to apply to a graduate program to test myself and see how I would do in the studio practice. I didn’t perform as well as I had hoped in the program or in my thesis exhibition, and that disappointment stayed with me. It pushed me in the years that followed to pursue various artist-in-residency programs abroad, which deeply influenced both me and my practice. I continued making and exhibiting work for more than a decade. One opportunity led to another, and in that sense, I was quite fortunate.
