Aimlessly navigating the canals, he would sometimes leap onto small islands overgrown with reeds, cheering up lonely bulls with his whistles. He'd pick berries from thorny bushes, poke at rabbit burrows to startle the young ones, and giggle at coots...

Kenjiro Okazaki, Aimlessly navigating the canals, he would sometimes leap onto small islands overgrown with reeds, cheering up lonely bulls with his whistles. He'd pick berries from thorny bushes, poke at rabbit burrows to startle the young ones, and giggle at coots dozing on the water's surface. His feet were always muddy and cheerfully wet. / あてなく運河を巡り、葦の茂る小島に飛び移り、寂しげな雄牛を口笛で元気づけ、茨からベ リーを摘み、ウサギの巣を突っつき子ウサギを驚かせ、水面で眠るオオバンに笑い、彼の 足はいつも泥だらけで朗らかに濡れていました。, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 160 cm × 130 cm (63" × 51-3/16") © Kenjiro Okazaki

Kenjiro Okazaki

Kenjiro Okazaki_Official Portrait

ⓒ Risaku Suzuki

Details

b. 1955, Tokyo, Japan

Kenjiro Okazaki is an acclaimed artist, architect, and theorist with a multifarious practice that spans painting, sculpture, robotics, costume and set design, and architecture.

With a unifying emphasis on form, Okazaki explores themes related to time, space, and the human experience through a postmodernist lens. In the vein of artists such as Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Paul Klee, Tomoyoshi Murayama, Filippo Brunelleschi, and John Cage, Okazaki’s work is rooted in an investigation of the perception and reconstruction of time. In addition to his artistic practice, he is a critic renowned for his efforts in redefining abstraction. Okazaki has authored and co-authored several books, including Renaissance: Condition of Experience (Bunshun Gakugei Library, 2015), and Abstract Art as Impact: The Concrete Genealogy of Abstract Art (Akishobo, 2018), and perhaps most well-known, Abstract Art as Impact: Analysis of Modern Art (Aki Shobō, 2018), for which he was awarded the Minister of Education Award for Fine Arts in 2019. Over the course of his four-decade career, his richly varied oeuvre has cemented the artist as an important voice in the cultural landscape of Japan and beyond.

In 2002, Okazaki was named Director of the Japanese pavilion at the 8th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2007, he created the costumes and set design for Trisha Brown’s dance performance I love my robots, which premiered at Montclair State University, New Jersey, before embarking on a world tour including performances at the University of California, Berkeley (2007); Montpellier Dance Festival, France (2007); De Singel, Antwerp, Belgium (2008); University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (2008); and The Joyce Theater, New York (2008). In 2014, he received the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Okazaki’s first one-artist exhibition was held at Muramatsu Gallery, Tokyo, in 1981, and important solo exhibitions of his work include Kenjiro Okazaki, Galerie Medianne Elko, Paris (1982); Toki no Katachi, Setagaya Art Museum, Tokyo (1989); Kenjiro Okazaki, Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Agen, France (1994); Abstract Arts Can Become Concrete Tools, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Japan (2017); Kenjiro Okazaki: Retrospective Strata, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Japan (2019–2020); and TOPICA PICTUS Revisited: Forty Red, White, And Blue Shoestrings And A Thousand Telephones, Blum & Poe, Tokyo (2022). His work is held in important collections including Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Museum of Modern Art, Toyama, Japan; The Rachofsky House, Dallas, Texas, among others. Okazaki lives and works in Japan.

The unequal distribution of land and water is evident at first glance. Though it may appear that this distribution is dominated by blind chance, a closer look reveals that an orderly rationale underlies the existing relationship between the solid and...

Kenjiro Okazaki, The unequal distribution of land and water is evident at first glance. Though it may appear that this distribution is dominated by blind chance, a closer look reveals that an orderly rationale underlies the existing relationship between the solid and fluid surfaces of the Earth. Waves flew in all directions as the whale churned through the water, its course marked by a rod-wide trail of white foam left by the thrashing of its tail against the surface. It passed beneath our ship once more before heading downwind and out of sight. Around 8am, before the wind direction had changed, I noticed water was quickly flooding into the boat at an alarming rate. Within minutes, the water level rose rapidly and the boat was no longer safe. The ship seemed to sail through milk, due to the immense number of tiny white creatures on the surface, concealing the water's hue. The Red Sea's distinctive red color, from which the name comes, results from a microscopic alga floating. The allure of that red color conceals the exuberant life activity. / 陸と海が不均等に分布していることは一見して明らかです。この分布は偶然に支配されているように見えるかもしれませんが、よりよく観察すると、地球の固体表面と流体表面の間に存在する関係の基盤に整合的な秩序があることが洞察できます。 波が四方八方から飛び、クジラが向かう方向は、尾が水面を激しく打ってできた幅1竿ほどの白い泡の道に示されています。彼は再び船の下を通り、風下に去りました。 風向きが変化していない朝8時頃、ボートに水がすごい勢いで浸水してくるのに気づきました。数分のうちにみるみる水量は増え、もはやボートは安全ではありません。 船はミルクの中を航行しているようだった。水面を泳ぐ無数の小さな白い動物が水の色合いに混じって起こす現象である。紅海とよばれる海の独特な色は、海面に浮かぶ微細な藻類の存在による。美しい赤い色の印象はその驚異的な繁殖力をも隠す。, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 224 cm × 363.5 cm × 7 cm (88-3/16" × 11' 11-1/8" × 2-3/4") © Kenjiro Okazaki

Her first thought was that perhaps the Virgin made miracle. But when she look again, the house wherein had faded her childhood dreams and her maiden illusions. There was nothing to do but go, so, began to prepare breakfast. Strange, she was calm, she...

Kenjiro Okazaki, Her first thought was that perhaps the Virgin made miracle. But when she look again, the house wherein had faded her childhood dreams and her maiden illusions. There was nothing to do but go, so, began to prepare breakfast. Strange, she was calm, she even had a desire to laugh! There was no miracle—the sun was rising and promised a magnificent morning, the breeze was delightfully cool, the stars were paling in the east, and the cocks were crowing as if to see who could crow best and loudest. She went out with as little noise as possible. / 彼女は最初、聖母が奇跡を起こしたと思いました。けれど再び見ると子供の頃の夢と乙女の幻が満ちた家はもう色褪せています。もう何もやることはない、だから朝食を準備しました。奇妙ですが、彼女は静かで、そして笑い出したかった。 奇跡はなかった。お日さまが昇り、素晴らしい朝を約束していました。そよ風が心地よく 涼しい。東の空では星が消えかかっていた。雄鶏たちが一番大きく美しく鳴けるかを競いあって鳴いている。彼女はできるだけ静かに出かけました。, 2023, acrylic on canvas, 209.7 cm × 116.7 cm × 6.5 cm (82-9/16" × 45-15/16" × 2-9/16") © Kenjiro Okazaki

Effet du Soir / 篝火焚日 / POIL DE CAROTTE by Kenjiro Okazaki

Kenjiro Okazaki, Effet du Soir / 篝火焚日 / POIL DE CAROTTE, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 182 mm × 252 mm × 30 mm (7-3/16" × 9-15/16" × 1-3/16") © Kenjiro Okazaki

3:15 by Kenjiro Okazaki

Kenjiro Okazaki, 3:15, 1983-1993 acrylic, pigment, polypropylene, paper, other, 27 cm × 17 cm × 17 cm (10-5/8" × 6-11/16" × 6-11/16") © Kenjiro Okazaki