Kotao Tomozawa portrait

Kotao Tomozawa

Up close with sensory slime

“Colours that are just squeezed out of the paint will not give you the depth that you have experienced in life. It takes a lot of time to try to find that depth”

Kotao Tomozawa’s paintings are playfully unsettling. At first glance they look hyper-realistic, but on closer inspection rough and energetic brush strokes are revealed. Tomozowa takes inspiration from calming moments of her youth spent playing with slime. This serenity became a starting point for self-expression in arresting close-up paintings. Tomozawa’s signature motif is heads masked by slime o...

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Bio

Kotao Tomozawa (she/her) was born in 1999 in Bordeaux, France. She now lives, works and studies in Japan as a Graduate student at Tokyo university of the arts.


Accolades

In 2019 Kotao Tomozawa won the Kume Keiichiro Prize, and in 2021 she won the Ueno Geiyu Prize.

Did you know?

Tomozawa is named after Koh Tao, an island in Thailand that her parents travelled to and fell in love with.

Collaborations with Kotao Tomozawa