Tomoko Konoike

Tomoko Konoike is a Japanese contemporary multimedia artist. She is best known for her large-scale installations and Nihonga-style surreal paintings.

Biography

Konoike was born in Akita, Japan. She graduated from the Department of Japanese Painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts. She worked as a toy designer before becoming a professional artist in 1988. She took a short hiatus from her artistic practice after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

As an artist, Konoike explores themes from mythology, folklore, and nature to create surreal and vibrant depictions of humans and animals in a range of media. Her work includes animation, drawing, painting, mixed-media sculpture and installations, textiles, and prints.
Konoike regularly exhibits her work solo both in Japan and abroad, and has taken part in several international group exhibitions. Her work is included in the collections of museums such as the Art Institute of Chicago, the Mori Art Museum, the Ohara [Museum of Art], and the Spencer Museum of Art In 2016, Konoike was awarded the Japanese Ministry of Education’s Art Encouragement Prize for her solo exhibition Primordial Violence.

The Planets Are Temporarily Hidden by Clouds, 2006, Mizuma Gallery, Naka-MeguroChapter #0, 2006, Ohara Museum of Art, OkayamaInter-Traveller, 2009, Tokyo Opera City Art GalleryEarthshine, 2013, Gallery Wendi Norris, San FranciscoSkin, Needle, Thread, 2016, Niigata Bandaijima Art MuseumPrimordial Violence, 2015-17, Kanagawa Kenmin Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, and the Niigata Bandaijima Art Museum.Fur Story, 2018, Leeds Arts UniversityLittle Fur Anger, 2018, Gallery Kido PressHunter Gatherer, 2018, Akita Museum of Modern ArtFLIP, 2020, Artizon MuseumStories Stitched and Sewn, 2021, Centre for Contemporary ArtsThe Birth of Seeing, 2022, Takamatsu Art Museum