profile
Born in Aichi, Japan in 1977. Professor of postgraduate course at Kyoto University of the Arts. After graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Nagoya University of the Arts in 2001, Kito completed his postgraduate studies of oil painting at Kyoto City University of Arts in 2003. In 2008, Kito spent a year in New York as part of the reward program for winning the Goto Memorial Cultural Award, followed by 2 years of creation period in Berlin, Germany.
Kito has been highly acknowledged both domestically and internationally for his works, which often combine contemporary colors found in such industrial products as hula-hoops and shampoo bottles merged with proliferation of organic lives, and expansion of the universe.
His solo exhibition “Multiple StarⅠ,Ⅱ,Ⅲ” was held at Hara Museum ARC, Gunma in 2017. Other major group exhibitions include “Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art” at Mori Art Museum, “Artist File” at the National Art Center, “Mono no Aware” at the State Hermitage Museum, Russia, and “The Secrets of Techniques“ at Takamatsu Art Museum. In 2020, his latest solo exhibition “Full Lightness” was introduced at Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art as the opening exhibition to celebrate the renewal of this museum. In 2021, his solo exhibition “big rip” was introduced at rin art association, Gunma.
Education
- 2015
- Return home
Lives and works in Takasaki, Gunma, Japan - 2010
- Lived and Worked in Berlin, Germany (with 2 year-grant of Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists provided by the Agency for Cultural Affairs
- 2008 - 2009
- Lived and worked in New York, USA (with the art grant provided by Gotoh Memorial Foundation
- 2003
- Completed Postgraduate Studies, Kyoto City University of Arts
- 2001
- Graduated from the Department of oil painting, Nagoya University of Arts
Solo Exhibitions
- 2022
- "Lines Kengo Kito", KAAT
, Kanagawa - 2021
- "big rip", rin art association,Takasaki,Gunma
"Reconnecting", JAPAN HOUSE Gallery, Los Angeles, USA - 2020
- "Full Lightness" ,Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Kyoto
- 2019
- "Light in Emptiness", rin art association, Takasaki,Gunma
- 2018
- "cart wheel galaxy", GATEAU FESTA HARADA GALLERY, Gumma
"color color color color color color" GATEAU FESTA HARADA GALLERY, Takasaki,Gunma - 2017-2018
- "MULTIPLE STAR I-III”, Hara Museum ARC Gallery A, Gunma
- 2017
- "cart wheel galaxy", rin art association, Takasaki,Gunma
"Kengo Kito"YCC Temporary, Yokohama,Kanagawa - 2016
- "KENGO KITO: Solo Exhibition", Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo
"Time Travel - Tokyo", KENJI TAKI GAKKERY, Tokyo
"KENGO KITO: Interstellar", Galerye Aube, Kyoto University of Art and Design, Kyoto - 2015-2016
- "Think Tank Lab Triennale - International Festival of Contemporary Drawings" Poland
- 2015
- "Reflection", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Tokyo
[Gotoh memorial culture Award,Most Promising Young Talent Prize, art rookie of the year title training returning home is commemorative]
"Symbiosis" , GATEAU FESTA HARADA GALLERY, Takasaki, Gumma
"Migration", The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Gunma
[Gotoh memorial culture Award, Promising Young Talent Prize,art rookie of the year title training returning home is commemorative] - 2014
- "cosmic surface", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Tokyo
Kengo Kito: active galaxy, GATEAU FESTA HARADA GALLERY, Gumma
"SMULACRUM", WOOSON GALLERY, Daegu, Korea - 2013
- "Kengo Kito: untitled (hula-hoop)", JOYCE GALLERY, Beijing, China
"cosmic hill", A Sin Place, Berlin, Germany - 2012
- "carousel", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Nagoya, Aichi
- 2010
- "METAMORPHOSIS - Objects Today Vol.7 Kengo Kito", gallery αM, Tokyo
"color colour", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Nagoya, Aichi
"Cosmic Surfing", Daiwa Foundation Japan House Gallery, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, London, UK - 2009
- "flimsy royal", Humanities Gallery, Brooklyn Campus, Long Island University, New York
- 2008
- "cosmic elements", Esplanade, Singapore
- 2007
- "Kengo Kito / tower", Ginza Komatsu 1F art space, Tokyo
luminary, KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Nagoya, Aichi - 2006
- "shimmer", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Nagoya, Aichi
- 2004
- "cosmic dust", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Tokyo
"quasar", GALLERY KOYANAGI, Tokyo
"Kengo Kito", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Aichi - 2003
- "grains", MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
- 1999
- "star maker".art space dot, Nishikasuga-cho, Aichi
Group Exhibitions
- 2022-2023
- "MASATO KOBAYASHI + KENGO KITO" MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto
- 2022
- "Study:Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2022",Grand front Osaka,Osaka
"ARTISTS' FAIR KYOTO 2022" The Museum of Kyoto Annex,The Kyoto Shimbun Bldg. B1F,Kyoto
"N/World", MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto
"Color & Emotion"POLA MUSEUM ANNEX, Tokyo
"ART SLOPE"SEIBU SOGO, Tokyo
"POLYPHONY"ARARIO GALLERY, Shanghai
"Fiction and Feeling"SEIBU SOGO, Tokyo - 2021-2022
- "Traces of Life"ART MAEBASHI ,Gunma
- 2021
- "Taiyou"MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto
- 2021
- "constellation #02" rin art association, Gunma
"The 5 Arts" ,Tomioka City Museum,Gunma
"Kengo Kito × Kaoru Usukubo",SeibuGallery,Tokyo - 2021
- "Where is a place for us ?"Chinretsukan gallery, The university Art Museum, Tokyo University of Arts, Tokyo
- 2021
- "DOMANI" The National Art Center, Tokyo, Tokyo
- 2021
- "up_01" GINZA SIX, Tokyo
- 2020
- "HAMAMATSU SESSION vol.2" Hirano Art Gallery, Shizuoka
- 2020
- "Looing At Pictures" The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Gunma
- 2020
- "constellation#01" rin art association, Gunma
- 2019
- "Island with ONI" WAITINGROOM, Tokyo
"Premium Furniture x Art" Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo
"Aichi Art Chronicle 1919-2019" Aichi Arts Center, Aichi
"The Secrets of Techniques" Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa
”Conect and Compare” Tomioka City Museum, Gunma
- 2018
- "Artists Fair Kyoto" The Museum of Kyoto Annex
- 2017
- "echo of the echoes", SEIBU SHIBUYA ART GALLERY, Tokyo
"Art is Science", Karuizawa New Art Museum, Aichi - 2016
- "Nowhere but Somewhere New", Seibu Shibuya Art Gallery, Tokyo
"Limitation and Creation of Imagination", Sezon Art Gallery, Tokyo
"DOMANI", KYOTO ART CENTER, Kyoto
"TOROENNALE 2016", TORO Museum, Shizuoka
"思い出の中のゆらめきーJコレクション",Nagoya City Art Museum, Aichi
"ART PROJECT TAKASAKI: THE ECHO", City Gallery Takasaki, Gunma - 2014-2015
- "Esprit Dior-The world of DIOR" Tamaya As Building, Tokyo
- 2015
- "COSMOS/INTIME La Collection Takahashi" Maison de la Culture du Japon, Paris, France
- 2013-2014
- "Now Japan; Exhibition with 37 contemporary Japanese artists", Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
"Mono No Aware. Beauty of Things. Japanese Contemporary Art",The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia - 2013
- "Daiwa Collection Ⅵ" , Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Naha,Okinawa
"Education, education and education Vol.1, The Painter of Modern Life", Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts, Zone, Kurashiki,Okayama
"THE ECHO – Sprending of Light" [Exhibition and Organization],The Japan Cultural Institute in Cologne, Germany - 2012
- "LADY DIOR AS SEEN BY", touring exh., WAKO Namiki Building / Triennale di Milan, Italy
(and other international venues)
"Daiwa Collection Ⅴ.NEW STAGE OF PHOTOGRAPHY", Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Naha,Okinawa
"Carpe Diem". Seize the day, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota
"Power of a Painting", NADiff GALLERY, Tokyo
"THE ECHO – ALTHOUGH I AM STILL ALIVE" [Exhibition and Organization], Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin - 2011
- "Art in an Office: From Impressionism and Modern Japanese paintings to Contemporary Paintings"
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota
"ARTIST FILE 2011: The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art", The National Art Center, Tokyo
"Ways of Worldmaking", The National Museum of Art, Osaka - 2010
- "Grop Show", GALLERY KOYANAGI, Tokyo
"Emerging Asian Artists" [Art Gwangju], Kimdaejung Convention Center, Gwangju, South Korea
"pig ment",, Zentralviehhofs, Landsberger Allee, Berlin
"The Gotoh Memorial Foundation 20th Anniversary Exhibition",, Bunkamura the Museum, Tokyo - 2009
- "BAROCK PLASTIK", I-MYU Project, London
"Celestial Pole", Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Takahashi Setsuro Gallery, Toyota
"Circle", Former Residential Building of Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, Nagakute-cho, Aichi
"NO MAN’S LAND", Ambassade de France au Japan, Tokyo
- 2008
- "Jungju An, Kengo Kito, Kae Masuda, Hiroharu Mori, Robert Platt, Ataru Sato, Kouichi Tabata", GALLERY KOYANAGI, Tokyo
"Twenty".Dazed and Confused Gallery, London, UK
"THE ECHO" [Exhibition and Organization], ZAIM, Yokohama - 2007-2008
- "Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art", Mori Museum,Tokyo
- 2007
- "HAPPY HOURS", ZAIM, Yokohama
"Paradise of Illusion", MA2Gallery, Tokyo - 2006
- "Kengo Kito + Robert Platt", Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
"Food and Contemporary Art part 2", BankART 1929 and shops in Yokohama, Kanagawa
"March Part 1", KENJI TAKI GALLERY, Nagoya
"VOCA 2006 - The Vision of Contemporary Art", Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
"Kengo Kito + Kouichi Tabata", Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo
"Fukutake House in Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006", Former Myokayama Elementary School, Tokamachi,Niigata - 2005
- "very very human", Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota
- 2004-2005
- "On Flowering Images: Contemporary Japanese Photography",Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
- 2004
- "jardin 2 jaune", MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
- 2003
- "jardin 1 noir", MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
"The 7th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists"The Museum of Art Gunma,Takasaki - 2002
- "Accretion Disk", MORI YU GALLERY, Kyoto
"Garden", Gallery SUZUKI, Kyoto
"snow white", Dojidai gallery, Kyoto - 2001
- "Contemporary Art 2001, NAGOYA", Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery Yada, Aichi
- 1999
- "cosmic flavour", art space dot, Nishiharu-cho, Nagoya
Others
- 2020
- "Children painting exhibition" Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba
- 2018
- "ART PROJECT TAKASAKI"
阪急うめだ本店ウィンドインスタレーション(大阪)
「六本木アートナイト2018」メインプログラム国立新美術館(東京)
- 2017
- "ART PROJECT TAKASAKI"
- 2016
- "ART PROJECT TAKASAKI"
渋谷西武全館プロモーション(東京)
「東京デザインウィーク 2016」明治神宮外苑メイン会場にインスタレーション(東京)
NISSAN×KENGO KITO 2017 CALENDAR - 2015
- "LOVERY RIMPA. ISETAN MITUKOSHI. KISS THE HEART. Art and Charity Programme
for East Japan ReconstructionSupport", GINZA MITSUKOSHI show window, Tokyo - 2014
- "Kengo Kito", New Town Plaza Phaze1, 3F Atrium, Hong Kong
- 2013
- "ISETAN MITUKOSHI. KISS THE HEART#2. Art and Charity Programme
for East Japan ReconstructionSupport", GINZA MITSUKOSHI show window, Tokyo - 2007-08
- "cosmic dance" [window design] , Ginza Maison Hermès, Tokyo
"starbrust galaxy", MOT×Bloomberg PUBLIC‘ SPACE’ PROJECT, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo - 2004
- "pink" [window design] , Ginza Maison Hermès, Tokyo
- 1999-2001
- Establish and run art space "dot" in Nishiharu-cho, Aichi as one of the members
Awards
- 2003
- Encouragement Prize, Kyoto City University of Arts,
- 2006
- Garden of the wonder of Alice「Art object, space installation competition」Grand prix receiving a prize Art garden, Huis Ten Bosch.Nagasaki Japan
- 2008
- 19th Gotoh Memorial Culture Award, Most Promising Young Talent Prize in Arts Division
Selected Collection
- The National Museum of Art, Osaka
- Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota,Aichi
- Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Takamatsu,Kagawa
- Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Cornell University, NY,
- Vanji Sculpture Garden Museum, Nagaizumi-cho,Shizuoka
- Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota,Aichi
- TAKAHASHI COLLECTION, Tokyo
- GATEAU FESTA HARADA, Takasaki,Gunma
- Hara Museum of Contemporary Art