Artist - Asako Tabata | SEIZAN GALLERY

Door, 2020,
Oil on canvas
63.8 x 51.3 x 1.2 inches (162 × 130.3 x 3 cm)

The Direction Everyone is Going, 2020
Oil on canvas
51.3 x 63.8 x 1.2 inches (130.3 × 162 x 3 cm)

Jump Rope, 2020
Oil on canvas, acrylic on paper mâché
Painting: 23.9 x 52.5 x 0.8 inches (60.6 x 133.3 x 2 cm)
Sculpture: 23.6 x 8.3 x 7.9 inches (60 x 21 x 20 cm)

Mom, 2020
Oil on canvas
31.6 x 39.4 x 1.1 inches (80.3 × 100 x 2.7 cm)

Some Mountains Need Not Be Crossed, 2020
Oil on canvas
31.6 x 39.4 x 1 inches (80.3 × 100 x 2.5 cm)

The Finish Line, 2018
Oil on canvas with wood frame
9.8 x 12 x 1.8 inches (25 x 30.5 x 4.5 cm)

Tube Float, 2020
Oil on canvas with wooden frame
13.6 x 17.2 x 1.8 inches (34.5 x 43.8 x 4.5 cm)

Meeting For the First Time In a While, 2020
Oil on wood
10.8 x 7.9 x 1.2 inches (27.5 x 20 x 3 cm)

Me Asleep, 2018
Oil on canvas with wood frame
11.8 x 9.1 x 4.7 inches (30 × 23 ×12 cm)

Walls, 2017
Acrylic on paper mâché
28.7 x 9.4 x 6.3 inches (73 × 24 × 16 cm)

Howl, 2020
Acrylic on paper mâché
15.4 x 7.1 x 13 inches (39 × 18× 33 cm)

Blue Sky, 2018
Oil on canvas with painted wood frame
25 x 25 x 1.7 inches (63.5 x 63.5 x 4.3 cm)

Demon, 2016
Acrylic on paper mâché
Sculpture: 6.7 x 5.5 x 2.78 inches (17 × 14.5 × 7 cm)
Box: 7.5 × 6.9 × 3.9 inches (19×17.5×10 cm)

Have to Take the Stairs, 2015
Oil on canvas with wood frame
9.5 x 13.1 x 1.7 inches (24.2 x 30 x 4.2 cm)

Invisible Arrow, 2021
Oil on wood
5.1 x 13.2 x 1.4 inches (13 × 33.5 x 3.5 cm)

Amabie, 2020
Acrylic on papier-mâché
11.4 x 2.8 x 3.5 inches (29 x 7 x 9 cm)

ASAKO TABATA

Born in Kanagawa, Japan
Lives and works in Tokyo, Japan

With intensely determined brushwork and a moody palette, Tabata depicts enigmatic human figures in a dreamy, Edvard Munch-like haunted atmosphere. Her subjects are frequently children, women, or genderless characters. They wear minimal facial expressions yet appear to be on the edge of being emotionally out of control. The works’ animistic quality and mix of whimsicality and maliciousness, channel artists such as Izumi Kato and Yoshitomo Nara.

Art critic John Yau wrote of Tabata’s work in Hyperallergic, “The subject running through all of the works is the meeting place of one’s inner and outer life, of psychic states and outward responsibility, and the different frictions that can arise in that gap. Tabata looks clearly and directly into the chasm between the wandering, daydreaming mind and the fulfilling of one’s social obligations, between one’s disposition toward anarchic wildness and the recognition of accountability.”

Tabata was born in 1972 in Kanagawa, Japan. After graduating Tama Art University and soon after becoming a mother and homemaker, she continued to make art. Not active on social media, Tabata has kept her work private with the exception of occasional shows in small galleries in Tokyo. Tabata had her first solo exhibition in the United States, “Cutting A Loquat Tree” at SEIZAN Gallery New York in 2022.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021
Cutting a Loquat Tree (SEIZAN Gallery New York)

2021
Secret Grievances (Gallery Echo-ann, Tokyo, Japan)

2019
It’s Majority Vote (Art Space Mizuoto, Tokyo, Japan)

2018
Solo Exhibition (Gallery Echo-ann, Tokyo, Japan)

2017
See-Saw (Art Space Mizuoto, Tokyo, Japan)

2015
Solo Exhibition (Shonandai MY Gallery, Tokyo, Japan)

2014
Solo Exhibition (SEIZAN Gallery, Tokyo, Japan)

2013
Solo Exhibition (Shonandai MY Gallery, Tokyo, Japan)

2012
Solo Exhibition (SEIZAN Gallery, Tokyo, Japan)

Solo Exhibition (Gallery Echo-ann, Tokyo, Japan)

Solo Exhibition (Shonandai MY Gallery, Tokyo, Japan)

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021
Ghosts of Summer (SEIZAN Gallery New York)

2020
On This Shore (SEIZAN Gallery New York)

A Bite of the Ant (SEIZAN Gallery Japan)

JO SAI SHO FUKU (Ward off Calamities, Invite Good Luck): Gods and Yokai in Time of Pandemic (Online, SEIZAN Gallery Tokyo, New York)

2015
SENSU (SEIZAN Gallery, Tokyo)

2014
Hyakki Yakou (SEIZAN Gallery, Tokyo)

2013
SENSU (SEIZAN Gallery, Tokyo)

2010
Precious (SEIZAN Gallery, Tokyo)

2007
HITOHITO (Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum)

PRESS

Asako Tabata Paints a World Between Reality and Imagination

John Yau, Hyperallergic

EXHIBITIONS

Summer Group Show

Asako Tabata: Cutting a Loquat Tree

Ghosts of Summer