Makiko Kudo

Makiko Kudo was born in 1978 in Aomori, Japan. She graduated from the Oil Painting Department of Joshibi University of Art and Design in 2002, and currently lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. From moments when a familiar walking path “suddenly appears to shine” to rivers and places near water, the scent of plants, the breeze, the sound of insect wings, animals, and dreams at night.―Kudo embraces things within daily life that are normally overlooked applying her unique sensitivity to depict dreamlike worlds that are reconstructions of both scenes within the mind and reality, where light, sights, and landscapes she has actually seen coalesce with people and emotions. Kudo says she was deeply impressed by the natural environment where she spent her childhood as a sickly and lonely child, as well as animals, novels, manga, and anime (especially those by Hayao Miyazaki). The Post-Impressionist works of Matisse, Bonnard, and Munch have also served as inspirations. She states, “Ultimately, you could say that I am depicting light.” Her major solo exhibitions include “Like When We See a Flower Bloom and Realise It Was There All Along” (Hiratsuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan, 2022), “Color of the Shadows” (Tomio Koyama Gallery Tennoz, Tokyo, Japan, 2022), “Reborn as Air” (Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2020), Wilkinson Gallery（London, 2015, 2012）, Marc Foxx Gallery（LA, 2011）、Andersen’s Contemporary（Copenhagen, 2010）. Her major group exhibitions include “The Way of Painting” (Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, 2014), “The New International 2014” (Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2014), “Towada Art Center 5th Anniversary Exhibition: flowers” (Towada Art Center, Aomori, 2013), “Body Language” (Saatchi Gallery, London, 2013), “Pathos and Small Narratives” (Gana Art Center, Seoul, 2011), “Pretty Baby” (Modern Art Museum, Modern Art museum, Fort Worth, TX, 2007), “MATRIX213: Some forgotten place” (Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA). Kudo’s paintings have been acquired by Hood Museum of Art, Hanover (USA), The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (USA), UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (USA), Ulster Museum, National Museums Northern Ireland, Belfast (UK). Her monograph “Turning” was published in 2012 from Tomio Koyama Gallery.