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 or gel-like ribbons. Working in oil on canvas, she punctuates lifelike flesh tones with deep blue, vivid red and bubblegum pink.
As well as three solo exhibitions in 2022 alone, Tomozawa has pursued a v...
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 or gel-like ribbons. Working in oil on canvas, she punctuates lifelike flesh tones with deep blue, vivid red and bubblegum pink.
As well as three solo exhibitions in 2022 alone, Tomozawa has pursued a variety of collaborations. These include Tororoen, a project the artist works on with her mother. Together they create stylised paintings of childlike figures in surreal outfits and situations. In 2021 she created limited edition t-shirts and posters for fashion brand X-Girl, and in the same year one of her abstract slime paintings appeared on an album cover for Japanese heavy rock band, Boris. Drawing on various uncanny archetypes, Tomozawa's art transports its viewer to unexpected realms – thick with emotion, sensation and drama.
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.
In 2019 Kotao Tomozawa won the Kume Keiichiro Prize, and in 2021 she won the Ueno Geiyu Prize.
Tomozawa is named after Koh Tao, an island in Thailand that her parents travelled to and fell in love with.
