Asako Tabata depicts enigmatic human figures in a dreamy, Edvard Munch-like haunted atmosphere with intensely determined brushwork and a moody palette. Her subjects are frequently children, women, or genderless characters. They wear minimal facial expressions yet appear to be on the edge of being emotionally out of control. The works’ animistic quality and mix of whimsicality and maliciousness, channel artists such as Izumi Kato and Yoshitomo Nara. 
 

Art critic John Yau wrote of Tabata’s work in Hyperallergic, “The subject running through all of the works is the meeting place of one’s inner and outer life, of psychic states and outward responsibility, and the different frictions that can arise in that gap. Tabata looks clearly and directly into the chasm between the wandering, daydreaming mind and the fulfilling of one’s social obligations, between one’s disposition toward anarchic wildness and the recognition of accountability.” 
 

After graduating Tama Art University and soon after becoming a mother and homemaker, she continued to make art. Not active on social media, Tabata has kept her work private with the exception of occasional shows in small galleries in Tokyo. Tabata had her first solo exhibition in the United States, “Cutting A Loquat Tree” at SEIZAN Gallery New York in 2022.