Born in Osaka in 1974 and relocated to New Jersey at a young age, MADSAKI graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York (BFA, 1996) and was a member of international artist group Barnstormers before starting his solo career. Both satirical and sentimental, aggressive yet vulnerable, MADSAKI has used graffiti influences as a way to express the frustration and alienation of his bicultural identity and to critique the value of art.