Close-up of artist Tomoo Gokita wearing a shirt and cap

Tomoo Gokita

Stylised figures, distorted identites.

“I want to throw away my skill; however, it's impossible to be entirely rid of something that’s deeply engraved within you.”

Tomoo Gokita’s eerie paintings exist on the periphery of figuration and abstraction. Exploring the depths of human psychology, his works typically depict figures made unrecognisable by abstract brush strokes and smears of paint. These faceless protagonists, often sourced from vintage magazines and newspapers, include celebrities, pro wrestlers and lingerie models. Gokita chooses to impartially obs...

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Bio

Tomoo Gokita (he/him) is a Japanese artist born in Tokyo in 1969, where he continues to live and work.

At auction

Original painting Be Just Like Family (2015) sold for over 1 million USD in 2019 at Phillip’s New York, around three times its upper estimate.

Museum shows

In the summer of 2021 Gokita opened Get Down at Dallas Contemporary, his first solo museum show outside of Japan. He created works for the show during the pandemic, with painting providing a refuge from current events – “What can I do in this pandemic? What will become of humanity? Ignoring such questions, I simply focused on painting.”

Collaborations with Tomoo Gokita

Avant Arte and Tomoo Gokita have one upcoming collaboration.

Exclusively on Avant Arte