Kengo KITO
royal, 2006
installation view, 2004
Biography
Born in 1977 in Nagoya, Japan.
1999–2001: Involved in the establishment and management of the artist-run space “dot.”
2001: B.F.A. in Painting, Nagoya University of Arts
2003: M.F.A. in Oil Painting, Kyoto City University of Arts
2008–2009: Stayed in New York with a grant from the Gotoh Memorial Foundation.
2010–2012: Stayed in Berlin as an Overseas Trainee under the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan.
2015: Returned from Berlin.
Currently lives and works in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture.
Solo Exhibitions
1999: star maker, Art Space dot, Nagoya
2003: Tsubu (Particles), mori yu gallery, Kyoto
2004: cosmic dust, Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2004: quasar, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
2004: New Works Exhibition, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2006: shimmer, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2007: luminary, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2008: cosmic elements, Esplanade, Singapore
2009: flimsy royal, Humanities Gallery, Long Island University Brooklyn, New York
2010: Metamorphosis – Real Contemporary Materiality (Vol.7 Kengo Kito), Gallery αM, Tokyo
2010: color colour, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2010: Kengo Kito – Cosmic Surfing, The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Daiwa Foundation Japan House Gallery, London
2012: carousel, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2014: cosmic surface, Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2014: Active galaxy, GATEAU FESTA HARADA Head Office Gallery, Takasaki, Gunma
2014: Simulacrum, Wooson Gallery, Daegu, South Korea
2015: Reflection (Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award Newcomer’s Art Prize Commemorative Exhibition), Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2015: Migration (Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award Newcomer’s Art Prize Commemorative Exhibition), The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Takasaki
2015: Symbiosis, GATEAU FESTA HARADA Head Office Gallery, Takasaki, Gunma
2015–2016: KENGO KITO STRUCTURES, Think Tank Lab Triennale – International Festival of Contemporary Drawings, BARBARA, Poland
2016: Seibu Shibuya, Tokyo
2016: Time Travel – Tokyo, Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2016: KENGO KITO Interstellar, Kyoto University of Art and Design Galerie Aube, Kyoto
2017: cart wheel galaxy, rin art association, Takasaki, Gunma
2017: Kengo Kito: Multiple Star, Hara Museum ARC, Shibukawa, Gunma
2017: YCC Yokohama Creativecity Center, Yokohama
2018: color color, GATEAU FESTA HARADA Head Office Gallery, Takasaki, Gunma
2019: Rolling Branches, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2020: Kengo Kito: Full Lightness, Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, The Triangle, Kyoto
2021: Kengo Kito – Space Out, Kenji Taki Gallery, Tokyo
2021: RECONNECTING, Japan House, Los Angeles, USA
2021: big rip, rin art association, Takasaki, Gunma
2022: Kengo Kito Exhibition | Lines, Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT) Atrium, Yokohama
2023: Kengo Kito: Unity on the Hudson, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY, USA
2023: About the Line, Ginza Tsutaya Books GINZA ATRIUM, Tokyo
2023: Measuring the Line, rin art association, Takasaki, Gunma
Selected Group Exhibitions
1999: Cosmic Flavor, Art Space dot, Nagoya
2001: Contemporary Art NAGOYA 2001, Nagoya Citizens’ Gallery Yada, Nagoya
2002: Accretion Disk, mori yu gallery, Kyoto
2002: Garden, Gallery SUZUKI, Kyoto (Curated by Yuko Hasegawa)
2002: snow white, Dohjidai Gallery of Art, Kyoto (Curated by Yuko Hasegawa)
2003: Black Garden (I), mori yu gallery, Kyoto
2003: Gunma Biennale for Young Artists ’03, The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma, Takasaki
2004: Yellow Garden (II), mori yu gallery, Kyoto
2004–2005: Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.3: New Flower Theory, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
2005: Very Very Human, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Aichi
2006: Kengo Kito + Robert Platt, Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo
2006: Food and Contemporary Art part2: Bisyoku Dogen, BankART1929 and surrounding shops, Yokohama
2006: March part 1, Kenji Taki Gallery, Nagoya
2006: The Vision of Contemporary Art (VOCA) 2006, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo
2006: Kengo Kito + Koichi Tabata, Tokyo Wonder Site Shibuya, Tokyo
2006: Fukutake House in Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2006, Tokamachi, Niigata
2007: Roppongi Crossing 2007: Future Beats in Japanese Contemporary Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
2007: something as if we do, Cafe Parlwr, Nagoya
2008: Twenty, Dazed and Confused, London
2008: The Echo, ZAIM, Yokohama
2009: Barock Plastik, I – MYU Projects, London
2009: No Man’s Land: Destruction and Creation at the French Embassy, French Embassy in Japan, Tokyo
2011: ARTIST FILE 2011: The NACT Annual Show of Contemporary Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo
2011: Ways of Worldmaking, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2012: Carpe Diem: To Live Today as a Flower, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Aichi
2012: Daiwa Collection V: Development of New Photography, Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum, Naha
2012: THE ECHO, Kunstraum Kreuzberg / Bethanien, Berlin
2012: LADY DIOR AS SEEN BY, Wako Namiki Building, Tokyo / Triennale di Milano, Milan
2013: Now Japan: Exhibition with 37 contemporary Japanese artists, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, Netherlands
2013: THE ECHO – Spreading of Light, Japanisches Kulturinstitut Köln (The Japan Foundation), Cologne, Germany
2013: Mono No Aware. Beauty of Things. Japanese Contemporary Art, The State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
2015–2016: COSMOS / INTIME: Inner Cosmos – Takahashi Collection Exhibition, Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, Paris
2016: Permanent Collection Exhibition Flickering Memories: The J Collection, Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya
2016: Construction and Restriction of Imagination, SEZON ART GALLERY, Tokyo
2016: DOMANI: The Art of Tomorrow PLUS, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto
2016: Art Project Takasaki – The Echo Exhibition, Takasaki City Gallery, Gunma
2018: Roppongi Art Night 2018, Roppongi Area (The National Art Center, Tokyo, etc.), Tokyo
2019: Takamatsu Art Museum Collection + (Plus): The Secret of Techniques, Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa
2020: The Place of Encounter: 8 Artists of SHIROIYA HOTEL, Phillips Tokyo
2021: Sun, MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto
2021: Kyoto Perspective, ANB Tokyo, Tokyo
2021: Kakegawa Chaennale 2020+1, Dainippon Hotokusha Gotoku Memorial Hall (and various locations in Kakegawa), Shizuoka
2021–2022: Traces of Life, Arts Maebashi, Gunma
2022: Matsumoto Architecture + Art Festival, NTT East Matsumoto Daimyocho Building (and various locations), Matsumoto, Nagano
2022: N/World, MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto
2022: Entrusting and Conversing / Resonating Ways of Thinking, MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto
2022: Kei Takemura & Kengo Kito Colors and Emotions, POLA Museum Annex, Tokyo
2022–2023: MASATO KOBAYASHI + KENGO KITO, MtK Contemporary Art, Kyoto
2023: MtK satellite vol.1 Akio Niisato + Kengo Kito, MtK satellite, Nagoya
2024: Matsumoto Architecture + Art Festival 2024 ANNEX, Former Matsumoto City Museum, etc., Matsumoto, Nagano
2024: Open, Tie, Mindscape Museum (Okazaki City Museum), Okazaki, Aichi
Awards & Projects
2003: Kyoto City University of Arts Exhibition, Encouragement Prize
2004: Window Installation at Maison Hermès (Hermès Ginza Store)
2006: Alice’s Garden of Wonder “Object and Spatial Installation Competition,” Art Garden, Huis Ten Bosch, Nagasaki (Grand Prix)
2007: MOT x Bloomberg PUBLIC SPACE Project, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), Tokyo [Outdoor Installation]
2008: Exhibition Organizer for The Echo, ZAIM, Yokohama
2008: The 19th (FY2008) Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award, Newcomer’s Art Prize
2010: Overseas Trainee under the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (2 Years)
2021: The 18th (FY2020) Jomo Art and Culture Award (Art)
2021: Shiroiya Hotel Illumination, Maebashi, Gunma
2023: Ginza Six Entrance Untitled (hula hoop) Installation
2023: Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2023, Grand Front Osaka Installation
Public Collections
Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi
The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York, USA
Toyota Motor Corporation, Aichi