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CURATOR’s EYE

10 Japanese Women Contemporary Artists to Watch Now [2023 Edition].

2023/02/17 TRiCERA ART

In the year 2023, the number of Japanese female contemporary artists active on the world stage is dramatically increasing.
Artists with roots in the Far East are attracting keen attention in the contemporary art scene for their unique problem-setting and creativity in raising such issues.
In this issue, we have selected 10 of these artists whose future activities are highly anticipated.

1) Anna Ochiai by Scripkariu

Scripcariu Ochiai Anna has two roots, one in Japan and the other in Romania.
Her search for a way to put down roots in her native country has led her to present expression across media, including photography and video, on the theme of "the connection between the land and people.
She has conducted cultural anthropological fieldwork on indigenous festivals and folk beliefs in various places in Japan and abroad, and in recent years, as an extension of her fieldwork, she has been working in the field of primatology.

Mari Katayama

Mari Katayama creates a variety of works, including self-portraits in which she uses hand-sewn objects modeled after her own body and prosthetic legs that she has actually used herself to create detailed effects.
When taking self-portraits, she uses a remote control and a self-timer, and her motto is "I always take the shutter myself.
She was born with a tibia defect in both legs and had both legs amputated at the age of 9. He vividly depicts his own identity and the theme of what a "proper body" is in his own unique way.
Recently, he received the 45th Ihei Kimura Photography Award for his photo book "GIFT," published in 2007, and his work exhibited at the 58th Venice Biennale. He has been actively participating in international exhibitions, and his reputation is growing.

(3) RIKAKO KAWAUCHI

Known for her drawing works, Rikako Kawauchi won the shiseido art egg award at the youngest age in 2015 while still in art school, when she filled the space of the Shiseido Gallery with only her drawings.
Her precocious talent has attracted attention from the beginning; in 2014, she won the first CAF Award Kenjiro Hosaka Prize.
In addition to paintings, she also incorporates various mediums such as wire, rubber tubing, neon tubes, and resin in her work.

4) Arisa Kumagai

Arisa Kumagai creates realistic paintings with a disturbing atmosphere.
Born in the year when the bubble economy began to burst, Kumagai was born in Osaka to parents who ran a boutique specializing in high fashion brands, and the experience of "glamour" and its "collapse" was deeply imprinted in her mind.
His works are gaining recognition for their inextricably linked longing and emptiness toward the "surplus" created by human desire.

5) Reina Sugihara

Reina Sugihara is a genuine painter.
She values the sense that her paintings become "others" apart from herself as the artist.
She also has a unique strength in her work, which organically develops from motifs such as the ornamental fish she keeps at home or casual facts she suddenly notices during the process of creation.
She completed the Royal College of Art in the UK in 2018, and is engaged in diverse activities as a player beyond the artist's framework, such as distributing artist interviews and review articles on her website and managing the project space "2×2×2" in Higashi-Ueno.

6) Asako Fujikura

Asako Fujikura has attracted attention mainly for her video works using 3DCG and augmented reality (AR) technology.
Her critical look at the intersection of virtual constructs and real space through unique expressive techniques is rooted in our shared awareness of the question of how we should understand contemporary technology.
In 2018, she completed her master's degree in Media Imaging at Tokyo University of the Arts, and in 2020, she won the Grand Prix of the LUMINE meets ART AWARD 2020.

(7) Rina Mizuno

Rina Mizuno creates paintings in ballpoint pen and oil.
Mizuno creates detailed and bold paintings on a large scale, incorporating various craft techniques practiced in traditional Japanese art. With the motto of "paintings that cannot be seen without being seen," Mizuno continues to work energetically.
He received the Encouragement Prize at the VOCA Exhibition in 2003 and the Mitsubishi Estate Prize at Art Award Tokyo Marunouchi in 2002. His collections include Daiwa Press, Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co.

8) Saya Murakami

Copperplate artist Saya Murakami likens her technique of rift-ground etching to the wounding and healing process of the human heart.
For her, the copperplate is the human heart, and the wounds on it are equivalent to psychological trauma, while the ink is blood and the paper on which it is printed is gauze and bandages.
Influenced by her family's practice as a doctor, she has constructed an allegorical worldview based on the motif of physical wounds and restoration.
In 2017, she won the Excellence Award at the Gunma Biennale for Young Artists 2017, and is an artist who will be attracting increasing attention in the future.

(9) Atsuko Mochida

Atsuko Mochida presents installation works in which foreign objects with a temporary character, such as walls and scaffolding, are inserted and penetrated into existing spaces and buildings.
In her work "Turning the House of T," which has won several art awards, she realized an extraordinary technique of rotating a part of the house in order to approach the memories fixed in the house while living together with her grandmother.
His reputation is growing with numerous art awards for young artists, including the 2021 TERRADA ART AWARD Kataoka Mami Prize and the 2018 Salon du Printemps Prize of Tokyo University of the Arts.

10) Kotao Tomozawa

Kotao Tomozawa, a student of the Graduate School of Fine Arts at Tokyo University of the Arts, is known for his self-portraits covered with a slime-like substance and realistic oil paintings of dolls.
He has won the Keiichiro Kume Prize and the Ueno Geiyu Prize since he was an undergraduate student, and is hotly sought after by collectors.
He is said to be the most popular young artist whose works are the most difficult to purchase. Her future trends are not to be missed.

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