Tokoha Matsuda

Tokoha Matsuda is a visual artist originally from Hokkaido, Japan, and now based in New York. Her work often features delicately layered cityscape etchings that evoke a poetic and introspective view of everyday urban life. After earning a BA in Behavioral Science from Hokkaido University, she moved to New York in 1990 and studied painting, drawing, and printmaking at the Art Students League of New York. She later received a BA and an MFA in studio and graphic art from Hunter College, CUNY.

Matsuda’s artistic vision is shaped by her early interest in human behavior, psychology, and the structures of society. Over time, her work has become more introspective—what she describes as “visual poetry”—using urban imagery to explore the emotional undercurrents that flow between external reality and inner life. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries across the U.S., Japan, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia, among them the Morris Museum, the National Arts Club, the Salmagundi Club, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum. She has held solo exhibitions in New York and Tokyo, and her works are in the permanent collections of institutions such as the New York Public Library, Syracuse University, and the Art Students League.

She is currently a member of the Society of American Graphic Artists (SAGA), the Boston Printmakers, and serves as president of the Japanese Artists Association of New York (JAANY).