

Ryoko Kumakura was born in 1991, in Tokyo and currently lives and works in Tokyo. Kumakura graduated from Tama Art University with a major in oil painting in 2014. She creates paintings based on the images that people have created throughout history. She is interested in the history of trial and error that led to the construction of people's worldview, and focuses on themes such as unconscious bias, what lies outside of cognition, and what the visible world is today. By crafting her own motifs and then going through the process of painting, she incorporates her own biases towards the original image, as well as the hand habits and distortions that occur during the manual process.
Major exhibitions include "coniunctio," a solo exhibition at The Imperial Hotel Plaza MEDEL GALLERY SHU, Tokyo (2019), "Pseudomer," a solo exhibition at RED AND BLUE GALLERY, Tokyo (2018), and "DI-VISION/0," a two-person exhibition by Ryoko Kumakura and Tenyo Nagai at TAV GALLERY, Tokyo (2018). Kumakura was selected for the 2019 Gunma Biennale for Young Artists.
PROFILE
1991 | Born in Tokyo, Japan |
2014 | Bachelor of Fine Arts, Department of Painting, Oil Painting Course of Tama Art University, Tokyo Currently, based in Tokyo, Japan |
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019 | “coniunctio” MEDEL GALLERY SHU (The Imperial Hotel Plaza), Tokyo |
2018 | “Pseudomer” RED AND BLUE GALLERY, Tokyo |
2016 | “PICTOMANCY” RED AND BLUE GALLERY, Tokyo |
2013 | “Frame In-out” GALLERY KINGYO, Tokyo |
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2019 | “STATION! in PACK 2019” Post Territory Ujeongguk, Seoul “MID CORE” TAV GALLERY, Tokyo |
2018 | “DI-VISION/0“ TAV GALLERY, Tokyo “ANOTHER LENS” Break Station Gallery, JR Ueno Station, Tokyo |
2017 | “Mikan-yama Sketchbook” See Saw Gallery +hibit, Nagoya Japan Arts Foundation Scholarship Students Exhibition “SO” Gaien Campus of Kyoto University of Art and Design and Tohoku University of Art and Design, Tokyo |
2016 | “Yoshiwara Super Art Service” in former Yoshiwara area, Tokyo |
2015 | “Shibuya Style vol.9” Seibu Shibuya Art Gallery, Tokyo “Shibukaru Matsuri 2015” PARCO Museum, Tokyo “ASIA WEEK NEW YORK” Bernarducci Meisel Gallery & Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York |
2014 | “PLANET JAM” MASATAKA CONTEMPORARY, Tokyo “That I shall say good night till it be morrow.” Shinjuku Ophthalmologist Gallery, Tokyo |
ACCOLADES
2019 | Accepted at “The 14th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists 2019” |
2017 | Accepted at “FACE 2016” Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Art Award Exhibition |
2014 | Ichiro Fukuzawa Prize, Tama Art University Graduation Exhibition |
2011 | Silver Prize, “Art Award of Kanagawa pref”. |
OTHERS
2017 | Special Lecture in Wako University |
2016 | Talk Show Related to Solo Exhibition “PICTOMANCY” by Michio Hayashi (Art Historian and Professor of Sophia University) and Mare Isakari (Art Critic) |
2013 | Japan Arts Foundation scholarship student |