Yoshiko Ratliff is a DC-Metro area-based painter and award-winning ceramicist. She was born and raised in Japan and uses her artwork to show the beauty and authenticity of the culture and her heritage. Her works rely on abstract organic underpainting with shapes and shades forming integral elements of the finished pieces.

She is a Member Artist at Touchstone Gallery in Washington DC and has exhibited her work at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities I Street Gallery, Athenaeum Gallery, Joan Hisaoka Art Gallery at Inova Schar Cancer Institute, the Mansion at Strathmore, three times at the Creative Crafts Council Biennial Exhibition, Glenview Mansion and other galleries nationwide as well. She had two designs and ten stormwater covers installed for the City of Alexandria Old Town North Stormwater Cover Design Project.

Her work is found in US and international private and corporate collections and in the 2022 and 2025 DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities permanent collection (acquired through the Art Bank program). She has received many awards and has been featured in publications and radio interviews.

ARTIST’S STATEMENT

I am a painter and an award-winning ceramicist. My paintings combine abstract and representational forms and structures. I strive to discover and use various techniques, materials, and surfaces to expand and enliven my vision and means of artistic expression.

I paint in several mediums including acrylic, oil and cold wax, and gold leaf, often blending and combining them where appropriate or interesting.

My works rely on abstract organic underpainting with shapes, textures and shades forming integral elements of the finished pieces, often incorporating influences of my Japanese heritage.

Art is therapy for the artist as well as the viewer. Through art, we can all gain access to wonderful, magical images, moods, and mindsets. These can allow us to transcend our daily burdens and cares and to look outside ourselves toward brighter and better paths