Atsushi Kaga

Atsushi Kaga was born in 1978 in Tokyo, Japan. He is described in some gallery biographies as having studied at the Tama Art Institute in Tokyo in 1997, then in Ireland at Colaiste Stiofain Naofa in Cork in 2001, before earning a BA in Fine Art Painting from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2005. He now lives and works between Dublin, Ireland, and Kyoto, Japan.

Kaga's practice spans painting, drawing, mixed media, and animation, and is centered on an ongoing autobiographical narrative told through an anthropomorphized rabbit figure that stands in for the artist himself, working through themes of memory, fragility, and everyday tenderness. His career has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, which awarded him visual arts bursaries in 2007, 2009, and 2020, and he received the Mont Blanc Young Artist World Patronage Award in 2011. He held the Tony O'Malley Residency in Callan, Kilkenny, from 2019 to 2021, and he is listed as an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in 2026.

His first solo museum exhibition, Just Another Human Experience, opened at The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art at Trinity College Dublin in November 2025 and runs into 2026.

Institutional attention has accelerated markedly in the years around 2023 to 2026: gallery solo shows in Dublin, Tokyo, and San Francisco culminated in his first dedicated solo museum exhibition at The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin. Coverage from galleries and institutions consistently frames his work through its recurring rabbit character as a vehicle for autobiography and vulnerability rendered with humor and popular-culture references, rather than as pure fantasy or genre illustration. No verifiable, exact-worded review from a named critic at a major outlet was located for this profile; the critical record so far is carried primarily by exhibiting institutions and representing galleries rather than independent press.

Kaga's auction record was set twice in consecutive days in late March 2026 at Christie's Hong Kong. YES! (A bag made by my mother), a 2021 work, sold for HKD 4,570,000 (about USD 584,900) on 27 March 2026, and the following day Moon Catcher, a 2020 work, sold for HKD 4,700,000 (about USD 600,100), setting a new artist record and reportedly exceeding its low estimate by more than five times. He is represented for sale by Jessica Silverman in San Francisco, mother's tankstation in Dublin, and Maho Kubota Gallery in Tokyo, and has shown at art fairs including Art Basel Hong Kong and Taipei Dangdai. Collectors should note that auction data for Kaga remains limited in volume; the March 2026 results are the clearest signal to date of rising secondary-market demand, but the sample of public sales is still small.

There is no catalogue raisonne for Kaga, and authentication runs through his three representing galleries rather than a foundation or estate. His auction market is young and thin by volume, and the two record-setting sales in March 2026 both occurred within a single Christie's Hong Kong sale series, so a single strong week can move the recorded high significantly. Some auction and price databases list him under the surname-first form "Kaga Atsushi" rather than "Atsushi Kaga," referring to the same artist, so collectors tracking his results across platforms should check both name orders.