Suchan Kinoshita (; born November 9, 1960) is a German-Japanese visual artist. Her mixed personal and artistic background has heavily influenced her work.
Early life and education Kinoshita was born November 9, 1960 in Tokyo and grew up in Japan with a German mother and a Japanese father. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Cologne Academy for Music and Dance) from 1981 to 1985 and the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht from 1998 to 1990. In Cologne she was taught by the contemporary composer Maurizio Fagel.
Career From 1983 to 1992 she was associated with the Theater am Mariënplatz in Krefeld, where she acted, directed her own plays, and made props. From 1988 to 1990 she studied at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht and taught a postgraduate study program. In the early 1990s she emerged as a visual artist with the exhibitions De Fabriek, in Eindhoven and Open für N in Krefeld. In 1994–1995 she participated in the PS1 exhibition in New York at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Kinoshita returned to Maastricht to teach in the postgraduate program at the Jan van Eyck Academy. She lives and works in Brussels and Münster, teaching painting at the Münster Academy of Art since 2006, where she is also deputy headmaster.
Work and themes Kinoshita's work is displayed in many public and private collections, including: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht; de Vleeshal, Middelburg; Museum Het Domein, Sittard; Chisenhale Gallery, London; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Lyon; Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp; and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent.
Kinoshita grew up between two different cultures and trained in various artistic disciplines. Her work blends elements from her background in experimental music and theater. With her performances and installations, almost all of which are distinctly interdisciplinary, Kinoshita presents the everyday in a different form. Kinoshita herself refers to this as "inbetween." The various themes from her varied background can readily be seen in her oeuvre.
In addition to many solo exhibitions, Suchan Kinoshita has participated in more than 90 international group exhibitions
Solo exhibitions (selection) Year Name Location 1991 1991 1993 1995 1996 1997 1998 1998 1999 2000 2002 2002–2003 2006 2006–2007 2007 2007 2010 2010 2011 2011 2011 2013 2014 2015 2023
Group exhibitions (selection) Year Name Location 1995 Various locations, Istanbul 1996 Various Museums, Rotterdam 1997 Site, Santa Fé 1998 Art Basel, Basel 2007 Sharjah Art Museum and various venues, Dubai 2010 Today Art Museum, Beijing 2010–2011 Ruth Buchanan, Simon Fujiwara, Suchan Kinoshita, Falke Pisano, Ian White: Kooperative für Darstellungspolitik (Cooperative for Representational Politics), Kunsthaus Bregenz 2011 2012 2012 2012 2016 2016 2016 2016 2017 2018 2018 2021–2022 2022
Prizes Year Prize Notes 1992 1999 2010 2025
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Further reading