Satoru KOIZUMI will hold his solo exhibition at Kyoto TSUTAYA BOOKS in Japan. The encounter between Kyoto, a place that has shaped the zeitgeist through the connections of people and things, and the contemporary artist who evolves while taking in the unknown, will spark a chemical reaction.

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Satoru KOIZUMI will hold his solo exhibition “the World Somewhat Different” at Kyoto TSUTAYA BOOKS in Japan. Contemporary artist Satoru KOIZUMI was born in Miyagi in 1983 and graduated from MA Sculpture, Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts in 2009. He is currently based in Okinawa, gaining international recognition primarily in Asia. KOIZUMI harmonizes the forms of various creatures that have acquired characteristics in nature with humans in society, creating a single life. He has presented works that fuse Disney characters with human figures through a two-year Asian tour as an official Disney collaboration since 2022. He held a solo exhibition “Portraits 100 Years On” at AKI Gallery in Taiwan, creating works featuring both natural and imaginary creatures, which he titled“Portrait of Someone” series in 2023. He will exhibit new sculptures and paintings from this series at Kyoto TSUTAYA BOOKS for the first time in Japan.

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KOIZUMI embodies a fundamental human desire, whereby people who feel anxiety and loneliness in society try to gain power by dressing up as wild or unknown creatures and transforming themselves into something else, which has continued since ancient times. The children in his works do not express their emotions, and are uniformly depicted with faces that anyone can feel affection for, while they are surrounded by unique creatures and objects that can adapt to any environment. This seems to reflect the survival strategies of modern people who constantly change their roles at work, at home, and on social media.

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The numerous pieces of art brought to Kyoto, the thousand-year-old capital, have contributed widely to the establishment of religion and art styles in Japan, as well as to popular culture, and continue to breathe life into our daily lives even after the capital was moved to Tokyo. Additionally, cultural properties of each era have also served as venues for human interaction. We hope you anticipate the chemical reaction that will emerge from the encounter between Kyoto, a place that has shaped the zeitgeist through the connections of people and things, and Satoru KOIZUMI, an artist who evolves while taking in the unknown into his work.

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If I had made a different choice back then, would the world have branched off and created a different version of myself?

What kind of job would I do? What kind of food would I like?

I am happy with who I am now, but it is interesting to imagine myself making a different choice.

Perhaps living there by wearing something invisible as needed is no different from living in this world.

–Satoru KOIZUMI