Katō was born in Shimane Prefecture. He attended
Musashino Art University and graduated from the Department of Oil Painting in 1992. He would first enter the public eye in 1995, with his paintings debuting at group exhibitions in Tokyo. Inspired by
Francis Bacon,
Vincent van Gogh, and
Itō Jakuchū, most of Katō's sculptures draw from the meaning of life, often resembling embryos or fetuses, and his works are intentionally left untitled to challenge the audience. He made his international debut as he went into sculpting around 2004. In 2007, he was discovered by American curator
Robert Storr, who noted that Kato's works were more abrasive and edgier than most Japanese works, which led to Storr inviting Kato to be the first young Japanese artist at the
52nd Venice Biennale. that appears to depict a baby-like creature pressed against the wall with its large head turned to the side. On the internet, Keisuke Yamamoto's photograph of the sculpture was used in the 2007
4chan post that described it as "
SCP-173": the first entry in what became the
SCP Foundation writing project. In 2014, Kato responded to the image's derivative use, reluctantly permitting its use by the SCP Foundation as long as he is credited and the work is not used for commercial purposes. In 2022, the SCP Foundation removed the photograph to avoid possible legal issues as it did not comply with their
Creative Commons license, while the entry's original author has requested the work to not be replaced in order to let people envision "SCP-173" for themselves. == Personal life ==