Born in Tokyo, Japan, 1955
Lives and works in Japan
One-Person Exhibitions
2024
Form at Now and Later 形而の而今而後, Pace, Seoul, South Korea
2021
TOPICA PICTUS / La Cienega, Blum & Loe, Los Angeles, CA
Topica Pictus / Rue de Turenne, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, France
2020
Topica Pictus, Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Topica Pictus, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Topica Pictus, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
2019
Retrospective Strata, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2018
Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan
2017
The Insight of Kenjiro Okazaki—Abstract Art as Impact: How Abstract Arts Can Become Concrete Tools, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan
“Things” Never Die. It Only Changes Its Form: Kenjiro Okazaki Paintings, A-things, Tokyo, Japan
2016
Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
POST / UMUM = OCT / OPUS, Kaze-no-sawa Museum, Miyagi, Japan
2015
Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan
2014
B-things and C-things at A-things, A-things, Tokyo, Japan
Hand Painted Ceramic Tile / Painting, Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
BankArt29, Yokohama, Japan
2011
Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan
2010
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2009
MOT Collection Special Feature: Kenjiro Okazaki, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan
2008
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2007
ZERO THUMBNAIL, A-things, Tokyo, Japan
2006
Eugine Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2005
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2004
Gallery Objective Collective, Tokyo, Japan
2002
Sezon Art Program Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Eugine Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2001
Eugine Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2000
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1999
Eugine Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1996
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1995
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
T3 Collection Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1994
Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Agen, Agen, France
1992
Leica OXY Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1991
Hillside Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1990
Ten Gallery, Fukuoka, Japan
1988
Hillside Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1987
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Gallery Takumi, Okinawa, Japan
1986
Nantenshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1985
ANDO Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1984
Ochanomizu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Studio 4F ROOF, Tokyo, Japan
1982
Galerie Medianne Elko, Paris, France
Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1981
Building through Construction, Muramastu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Group Exhibitions
2024
A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection, The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), Tokyo, Japan
Thirty Years: Written with a Splash of Blood, BLUM, Los Angeles, CA
2022
MOMAT Collection, Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
2021
Mountains Carrying Suns, Blum & Poe, Tokyo, Japan
2020
5,471 miles, Blum & Poe, Tokyo, Japan
2019
Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA
Abstraction in Asia: From 1960 to Nowadays, Vazieux Art Gallery Paris, France
2018
Starting Points: Japanese Art of the '80s, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan; traveled to Takamatsu City Art Museum, Takamatsu, Japan; Shizuoka City Art Museum, Shizuoka, Japan
Physica: Natural Philosophy as an Artistic Principle, Galerie Omotesando, Tokyo, Japan
2015
Whose Place Is This? An Art Exhibition for Children, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
The Medium of the Sprit, Takamatsu Media Art Festival, Kagawa, Japan
Shunsuke Imai, Kenjiro Okazaki, Enrico Isamu Ōyama, Takuro Someya Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2014
Mud and Jelly: Primarily from the Museum Collection, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Shintaro Tanaka, Kenjiro Okazaki, Kodai Nakahara: Articulating Form, BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama, Japan
2013
Et in Arcadia Ego, the Hidden Place Called “Sculpture”, Musashino Art University Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2011
Siding Railroad 2011, Tokorozawa Biennial of Contemporary Art, Tokorozawa, Japan
2007
Painting as Forest: Artist as Thinker, Okazaki City Mindscape Museum, Aichi, Japan
2005
Deep in Creation: Work in Progress!, Nerima Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Kenjiro Okazaki and Hisao Matsuura, Galleria Finarte, Nagoya, Japan
2004
BankART Life, BankART1929, Yokohama, Japan
Straight No Chaser, Ningyo-cho Vision’s, Tokyo, Japan
2002
Cyclical Art Site, Oita Art Museum, Oita, Japan
Art Today 2002, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
8th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice, Italy
2001
Kenjiro Okazaki x Syuji Okada, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan
Dialogue 2001, Embassy of Canada Prince Takamado Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2000
Samazamana Me 112, IBM-Kawasaki City gallery, Kawasaki, Japan
1999
SURFACE, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada
1997
9th Triennale of India, Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India
Teien no kaiwa, Bumpodo Gallery, Tokyo
Art Today 1997: Opera Aperta, Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, Japan
Kenjiro Okazaki / Hisao Mastuura, Eugine Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Yumeooka Art Project, Yumeooka Building, Yokohama, Japan
The Mirage City: Another Utopia, NTT Inter Communication Center, Tokyo, Japan
1996
Protean Artists of the Times, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Hiroshima Prefectural University Library, Hiroshima, Japan
Sharaku Interpreted by Japan's Contemporary Artists, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo, Japan
Kume Sekkei Head Office Building, Tokyo, Japan
Hotel Kinokonomori, Gunma, Japan
1995
On the Web: The Museum inside the Network, NTT Inter Communication Center, Tokyo, Japan
Allegory of Seeing 1995: Painting and Sculpture in Contemporary Japan, Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Niigata Engineering Co., Ltd Head Office Building, Niigata, Japan
Casting Art ’95, T3 Collection Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1994
Japanese Art after 1945: Scream against the Sky, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan; traveled to the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Parallel Art Exhibition 13, Tokyo Ohara Ikebana Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
FARET Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan
Open Air ’94 Out of Bounds, Benesse House Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Kagawa, Japan
The Vision of Contemporary Art '94, The Ueno Toyal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Of the Human Condition: Hope and Despair at the End of the Century, Spiral, Tokyo, Japan
1993
Random Accident Memory, The Miyagi Museum of Art, Miyagi, Japan; traveled to Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Exchange 2, Shedhalle, Zurich, Switzerland
Artlab 1st Open Collaboration: Psychoscape, O Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Samazamana Me 50 Standard Discrimination Standards, IBM-Kawasaki City Gallery, Kawasaki, Japan
1992
Triangle Artist’s Workshop, Pine Plains, New York, NY
1991
Japan Art Today: Elusive Perspectives/Changing Visions, Kulturhuset Stadsteatern, Stockholm, Sweden; traveled to Exhibition Hall Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark; Helsinki Municipal Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland; Reykjavik Municipal Art Museum, Reykjavik, Iceland
Soh Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Bulbous Plants: Kenjiro Okazaki, Yoshinori Tsuda, Miyagi Museum of Art, Miyagi, Japan
Nerima Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1990
Museum City Tenjin, Fukuoka, Japan
1989
Europalia ’89: Contemporary Japanese Art, Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst Gent, Belgium
’89 Fukuyama Sculptural Project, Shinichicho, Hiroshima, Japan
The Print, Drawing and Paper Work Biennale, Quebec, Canada
Nerima Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Toki no Katachi, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1988
The Museum of Modern Art Toyama, Japan
Tama Vivant ’88, The Seed Hall, Tokyo, Japan
1987
Art Today 1987, Karuizawa Takanawa Art Museum, Nagano, Japan
Art in Japan since 1969: Mono-ha and Post Mono-ha, The Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
1986
Monologue / Dialogue, Nabis Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Itsutsu no Hyogen, Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
1985
85’ Contemporary Art, Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi Prefectural Art Museum, Yamaguchi, Japan
1984
Round About Passage, Awajicho Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Art of Present: Internalized Structure 2, Tokyo Central Museum, Tokyo, Japan
1983
Two Man Exhibition, Gallery Parergon, Tokyo, Japan
1982
12e Biennale de Paris, Musée d' Art Modern de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France
Parallel Art Exhibition 2, Tokyo Ohara Ikebana Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
The Front Line of Modern Art ’82: Strategies of Figures, Gallery Parergon, Tokyo, Japan
1981
Hara Annual II, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Artists Today ’81: Theme the Wall, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Yokohama, Japan
Kansho Chitai, Gallery Parergon, Tokyo, Japan
1979
B-semi Exhibition, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Yokohama, Japan
1978
B-semi Exhibition, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Yokohama, Japan
Other Projects
2008
Costume and visual design for I love my robots, choreographed by Trisha Brown, Joyce Theater, New York, NY
2007
Costume design for Europera 5, Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Costume and visual design for I love my robots, choreographed by Trisha Brown, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley, CA; Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ; Montpellier Danse Festival, Montpellier, France
2002
Director of 8th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
1984
Interior design for Glass Art Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Selected Catalogues
2020
Yoshitake, Mika. Parergon: Japanese Art of the 1980s and 1990s. Los Angeles: Blum & Poe, 2020.
Kenjiro Okazaki: Retrospective Strata. Texts by Kenjiro Okazaki, Michio Hayashi, Atsushi Okada, Yu Nakai, Hisao Matsuura, and Machiko Chiba. Tokyo: Nanarokusha Publishing Inc., 2020.
Topica Pictus. Texts by Urara Nakamura and Kyongmi Park. Tokyo: Nanarokusha Publishing Inc., 2020.
2018
Abstract Art as Impact: Analysis of Modern Art. Tokyo: Aki Shobō, 2018.
2002
Art Today 2002: Kenjiro Okazaki. Tokyo: Sezon Museum of Modern Art, 2002.
2001
Renaissance: Condition of Experience. Tokyo: Chikuma Shobō, 2001.
1994
Platt, Ron. The Ghost in the Machine. Cambridge, MA: MIT List Visual Arts Center, 1994.
Selected Articles and Reviews
2022
Zheng, Elaine YJ. “Art Week Tokyo 2022: Must-See Exhibitions.” Ocula.com, November 2, 2022. “Iro to Katachi no Kenkyū.” (A Study of Color and Shape). Art Collectors', June 2022.
Kojima Yayoi. “Collection.” Casa Brutus Magazine House Mook Extra Issue, April 2022.
Ito-soken. “Tokubetsu Intabyū Sakamoto Ryūichi Ongaku to Ikiru.” (Special Interview Ryuichi Sakamoto, Living with Music). Fujin Gahō, March 2022.
2021
Diehl, Travis. “Kenjiro Okazaki’s Landscapes of Time and Space.” Frieze (October 2021): 186–87.
Khemsurov, Monica. “Saturday Selects: Week of September 20, 2021.” Sightunseen.com, September 25, 2021.
Tsuchiya Seiichi. “Korona-ka ni Okeru Omamori to Shiteno Gashū Okazaki Kenjirō TOPICA PICTUS.” (Artbook as “Amulet” in the Corona Pandemic, Topica Pictus by Kenjiro Okazaki). Rear, March 30, 2021.
“Interview Kenjirō Okazaki Chūshōga-tte Nani? Sakuhin no Koyūsei wo Megutte.” (Interview Kenjiro Okazaki, What is Abstract Painting? On the Uniqueness of Artworks). Art Collectors', March 2021.
Museum and Public Collections
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Tokyo, Japan
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya, Japan
Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Kagawa, Japan
BY ART MATTERS, Hangzhou, China
Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan
Faret Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan
Fukuyama City, Hiroshima, Japan
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
Hiroshima Prefectural Women's University, Hiroshima, Japan
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan
Iwaki City Art Museum, Iwaki, Japan
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu, Japan
Mitaka City Arts Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan
National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Japan
Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
Oita Art Museum, Oita, Japan
Osaka City Museum of Modern Art, Osaka, Japan
Rachofsky Collection, Dallas, TX
Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Sezon Museum of Modern Art, Nagano, Japan
Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, Japan
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan
Yumeooka Art Project, Kanagawa, Japan