Koki Tanaka (artist)

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Koki Tanaka (born December 6, 1975) is a Japanese artist and videographer known for minimalist works that explore everyday life. He grew up in Mashiko, Tochigi, and studied internationally, including at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (1998), Tokyo Zokei University (2000), and Tokyo University of the Arts (master’s degree, 2005). After graduation, he lived in Paris with support from the Pola Art Foundation and later studied in Los Angeles through an Agency for Cultural Affairs program.

Style and approach
Tanaka’s work is grounded in minimalism and often uses video to examine ordinary objects and situations. Early on, he was drawn to looping videos of everyday phenomena. After moving to Los Angeles in 2010, he began creating pieces where multiple people perform the same action simultaneously—such as nine hair stylists cutting hair at once or five pianists playing the same piano—to challenge routine and highlight collective behavior. He often gathers cheap, readily available objects from places like 100-yen shops. After the Fukushima disaster, his projects increasingly focused on temporary communities formed by crisis.

Career highlights and exhibitions
Tanaka has shown his work at major venues around the world, including Art Tower Mito, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in Gunma, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Hammer Museum, Museum of Art in Seoul, National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto, and Kunsthaus Graz. He represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 2013 and was Deutsche Bank’s Artist of the Year in 2015. In 2017, he participated in Skulptur Projekte Münster with a project about living together; the installation faced theft and vandalism and was temporarily closed. In 2018, he was named a Japan Cultural Envoy by the Agency for Cultural Affairs.

External link
Official website: kktnk.com