Kako Shirahata (b. 2002, Osaka) is currently based in Shiga.  Her work reinterprets the ancient mystical gesture of anasyrma (a practice of a woman lifting her garments to expose her genitals) as an act that opposes the structures of the unidirectional gaze, and attempts to reconstruct images in pictorial space through the use of motifs such as faces, bodies, and flowers, with a thematic focus on issues surrounding sexuality and the body, exploring the possibility of transforming the passive, harmless existence of something seen into an active subject that flaunts its presence by superimposing the artist’s own features onto female figures in classical art and contemporary visual culture.

Recent major exhibitions include Re; Archive (Mikke Gallery, 2025), More Passion! (Yutaka Kikutake Gallery, 2025), Skeptically Curious: Multiple Approaches to the Transformation of Value (Mizuho Bank Kyoto Branch, 2025), CAPS: Contemporary Art Practice | Studio—CAPS 2025 (Osaka Takashimaya, 2025), Floor—An exhibition of artists recommended by Kengo Kito (Seibu Shibuya Alternative Space, Tokyo, 2024), and Pleiades Edition 1 (Gallery a, Kyoto, 2023). Major awards include the Mynavi ART AWARDfor Excellence at Artists’ Fair Kyoto 2026, the Kyoto University of the Arts Degree Show 2025 Graduate School Award, the Kyoto University of the Arts Degree Show 2023 Excellence Award, and the 44th International TAKIFUJI Art Award Prize for Excellence.