Yoi Kawakubo
b. 1979, Japan
Spanish born Japanese artist based in London and Tokyo, he turned to artistic practice after studying neuroscience and disability sciences subsequently working as a financial trader for several years.
In his spatial installations, based on historical research and references to literature, all topics are complexly interconnected through his personal experience. He makes use of a wide range of media, covering from photography to architectural interventions, including video, perfumes or cocktails, that he rigorously differentiate depending on the context.
Some of his recurring topics are examinations on the nature of finances, nuclear power, genetics or land property. These questions are all neatly grounded on fundamental questions of philosophical nature such as the ontology of human identity, consciousness or reflections on the limits of representation.
Recent group exhibitions include Yokohama Triennale 2020 -Afterglow- (Yokohama, Japan, 2020), Roppongi Crossing 2019 - Connexions (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019), 21st DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow (National Art Center, Tokyo, 2019), Islands, Constellations and Galapagos -Yokohama Triennale 2017 (Yokohama, Japan, 2017), Linguamania (The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2017), The Vision of Contemporary Art 2015 (The Ueno Royal Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2015), Visceral Sensations (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan, 2013).
Recent solo exhibitions include I/body/ghost (Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London, 2018), Two million years of solitude, cherry blossoms and fifty thousand light-years more (Koganecho Site-A, Yokohama, Japan, 2017), Stella Maris was a name I found in a dream (Daiwa Foundation Japan House, London, 2016), and Fall (Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, 2016).
He has won the Ohara Museum of Art Prize at the VOCA 2015 The Ueno Royal Museum of Art, Tokyo, and has been shortlisted for the Shiseido Art Egg Prize in 2016 and the Sovereign Asian Art Prize (HK) in 2012.
He has been the recipient of the POLA Art Foundation award for overseas research in 2016 and Fellow of Overseas Study Programme for Artists, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan in 2017.