Suchan Kinoshita

Suchan Kinoshita is a German-Japanese visual artist. Her mixed personal and artistic background has heavily influenced her work.

Early life and education

Kinoshita was born November 9, 1960 in Tokyo and grew up in Japan with a German mother and a Japanese father. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln from 1981 to 1985 and the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 1998 to 1990. In Cologne she was taught by the contemporary composer Maurizio Fagel.

From 1983 to 1992 she was associated with the Theater am Mariënplatz in Krefeld, where she acted, directed her own plays, and made props. From 1988 to 1990 she studied at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and taught a postgraduate study program. In the early 1990s she emerged as a visual artist with the exhibitions De Fabriek, in Eindhoven and Open für N in Krefeld. In 1994–1995 she participated in the PS1 exhibition in New York at the Museum of Modern Art. Kinoshita returned to Maastricht to teach in the postgraduate program at the Jan van Eyck Academy. She lives and works in Brussels and Münster, teaching painting at the Münster Academy of Art since 2006, where she is also deputy headmaster.

Kinoshita's work is displayed in many public and private collections, including: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; de Vleeshal, Middelburg; Museum Het Domein, Sittard; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon; Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent.
Kinoshita grew up between two different cultures and trained in various artistic disciplines. Her work blends elements from her background in experimental music and theater. With her performances and installations, almost all of which are distinctly interdisciplinary, Kinoshita presents the everyday in a different form. Kinoshita herself refers to this as "inbetween." The various themes from her varied background can readily be seen in her oeuvre.
In addition to many solo exhibitions, Suchan Kinoshita has participated in more than 90 international group exhibitions