Makiko Kudo

Makiko Kudo's works feature familiar objects in imaginary scenes. Girls, trees, grass, flowers, and small animals are some of the motifs that populate her canvases; each is depicted in a delicate and intimate manner.
At the same time her dynamic strokes portray the force of her brush. After multiple passes, the flat surface becomes a brilliant and chaotic surface that provides a sense of depth. Through the bold composition and balance of colors, Kudo releases snippets of her memory onto canvas so viewers can ride and appreciate the waves of emotion.

Kudo's ideas for new pieces were hatched when a friend traveled to the Himalayas. The idea of a far away places developed scenes where familiar objects were encountered in unexpected locations, including ones that had never been seen before, so that the scenes resembled dreams. The work “I Wanna Ask You” features two girls laying on a grassy hill with a background of blue sky and an expanding jet-black mound. The work “Made of Animal Bones” features purple fog and a girl in a chair. The idea for the chair sprang from a memory of a similar one she saw in a museum; her works represent the merger of imaginary worlds combined with fragments of memory. This exhibition includes ten new works, including large paintings over three meters.

Artist Biography:
Makiko Kudo was born in Aomori prefecture in 1978. She graduated from Joshibi University of Art and Design with a specialization in oil painting in 2002. She is now based in Tokyo.
Her work was exhibited in 2002 at the exhibition “Fragile Figures” (Ballet Club), curated by Tomio Koyama, as well as the exhibition at Nadiff Tokyo “Tokyo Girls Bravo”, curated by Takashi Murakami. After an absence of two years, this exhibition marks her third at the Tomio Koyama Gallery. Her other major exhibitions include “Time of My Life” (2004) at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, “MATRIX 213: Some Forgotten Place” (2004) at the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, and “Pretty Baby” (2007) at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Tomio Koyama Gallery
　 Contact information for press materials：Tomoko Omori  tel / 813-3642-4090

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