Biography

English Bio

Profile

Based in Osaka and Kobe, Japan, she graduated from an art university in London and later returned to Japan, where she completed an MA in Art and Media Theory at Osaka University. Since then, she has developed her artistic practice through participation in artist-in-residence programs both in Japan and internationally.

Her work explores moments in which boundaries begin to blur—between self and other, life and death, nature and the artificial, and reality and fiction. Working primarily with video-based installation, she incorporates performance, mirrors, and time-based media to create situations in which documentation and staging intersect, allowing perception and meaning to quietly shift.

Her recent solo exhibitions include OAG Art Center Kobe (2025), The Third Gallery Aya (2024), and CAS (2021). Internationally, her work has been presented at MAWA (2022) and FRISE (2016). Other selected exhibitions and projects include Kawakyu Museum (2022), the Casablanca Biennale (2017), WROUGHT (2016), and Kyoto City Museum of Art (2013).

Alongside her artistic practice, she is the director of the art spaces AOTO Art and ARTCA, where she is also engaged in creating platforms for exhibition, learning, and artistic exchange.

2001: B.A.in Fine Arts at Middlesex University, England
2020: M.A. in Art and Media at Osaka University
2026: Live in Kobe and Osaka

Solo Exhibition

2002: Dream Island, CAS, Osaka
2003: Underneath the Twinkling Stars, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna
2004: Soap Opera, Art-U room, Tokyo
2005: Dune/Trip, PH Gallery, NY
2006: The Dark Hours of the Forest in the Red Room, G-wings Gallery, Kanazawa
My Real Name, The Third Gallery Aya, Osaka
2007: Outo, Enghien les Bains Art Center, France
Wave, Dawn Center, Osaka
Vomit, Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka
2019: Peals, The Third Gallery Aya, Osaka
2011: In-between, msc Gallery, Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto
2013: Project ‘Mirrors’, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto
2014: Forcing House, Art-U room, Tokyo
2015: Voice, The Third Gallery Aya, Osaka
2016: TEGAMI -Perspektiven Japanischer Künstler- Tomoko Inagaki, FRISE – Künstlerhaus Hamburg e.V.
2017: Ghost, Art-U room, Tokyo
2018: Decalcomanie, The Third Gallery Aya, Osaka
2020: Diary 2020, The Third Gallery Aya, Osaka
2021: Whiteout,CAS, Osaka
2022: Face, MAWA, Winnipeg, Canada
2024: ‘This Way ant That’, The Third Gallery Aya, osaka
2025: ‘Unhouse’, OAG Art Center Kobe

Group Exhibitions

1998: Dairy, Quicksilver Gallery, London（Toured to Paris and Brussels）
2000: Show Reel, Gallery 291, London
East End Collaboration 2000, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London
Bang, Standpoint Gallery, London
The Third Festival of Experimental Art and Performance, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg
2001: The National Review of Live Art, The Arches, Glasgow
2002: Kobe Art Annual Millefille, Kobe Art Villege Center,Hyogo
2003: Enter Human,CCA Kitakyusyu,Fukuoka
Komorebi, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki
2004: Osaka・Art・Caleidoscope ‘Spring・Flower・Life’, CASO, Osaka
Art Court Frontier, ARTCOURT Gallery, Osaka
Pilot Plant, (Tour Exhibition), Contemporary Art Factory, Tokyo／CASO, Osaka
Bunkamura Art show 2004 ‘Landing’, Bunkamura Gallery, Tokyo
2005: Open Submission, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima
Mirage in Summer, Gunma Museum of Art, Tatebayashi
2006: Image Forum 2006, Tokyo
2007: I meet…, CASO, Osaka
2008: Bains Numeriques #3, Centre des Arts Enghien les Bains, France
Nuitnumerique #6, Centre Culturel Caint-Exupery, Reims, France
Talk & Exhibition 2008 – Video Art Activities, Ox Warehause ,Macau
2009: Twinism, Kunsthaus,Hamburg / AD&A Gallery, Osaka
2010: Transmediale.10,the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin
Duo Exhibition Tomoko Inagaki and Svenja Maass, Kunstverein Harburger Barnhof, Hamburg
video_dumbo,the Dumbo Art Center, Brooklyn, New York
2011: Nara Video Kotenpandant, Nara City
2013: Kyoto Current 2013,Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art,Kyoto
2014: I’m home Pre exhibition, Calo, Osaka
I’m home, Jisen Center, Osaka
2015: TEGAMI – Perspektiven japanischer Künstler,Das Japanesche Haus,Leipzig
Gakuen Art Week 2015, Gallery GM-1, Nara
2016: One to One Performance Festival WROUGHT, Sheffield
Biennale Internationale Casablanca
2017: 12 Messages -Marine,+1 art,Osaka
2019: Reading Fermentation,+1 art,Osaka
Waves and Frequencies, FRISE – Künstlerhaus Hamburg e.V. and toured to CAS,Osaka
2020: HER/HISTORY, Jisen Center, Osaka
2022: Kyotentai,+1 art, Osaka　Tourd；CAS, Osaka
Real Dream, Kawakyu Museum, Wakayama
2023: ‘Kunst Party’, OAG Art Center Kobe
2024: ‘Sketch’by WE, OAG Art Center Kobe
2025: ‘WE THE DAY’, OAG Art Center Kobe
‘The Sound of A’, AOTO Art

Awards, grants and residencies

Awards and grants

1999: Ray Finnis Award 1999, England
2002: Selected for the 5th Art Documents Support Program (ADSP) by SHISEIDO
2006: Image Forum 2006, Tokyo
2008: Supported by Art by Zerox
2009-10: Nomura Foundation Grant
EU Japan Fest Grant
2012: Awarded for eAT KANAZAWA Digital Creative Award 2012
2013: Supported by Shiseido
2016: Art Support Kansai Grant
Sasakawa Foundation Grant
2022: the Toshiaki Ogasawara Memorial Foundation Grant
2023: Gyomu Super Japan Dream Foundation Grant

Artist in Residencies

2004: ARCUS PROJECT 2004, Ibaraki, Japan
2006-7: the 17th Art-Ex Osaka, Enghien les Bains Art Center, France
2009-2010: Kunstler zu Gast in Harburg,Hamburg, Germany
2014: Vermont Studio Center 2014, U.S.
2017: Sapporo Tenjinyama Art Studio, Hokkaido,Japan
2021: Artist in Hibernation, Nagano
2020-2021: Super Studio Kitakagaya, Osaka
2022: MAWA,Winnipeg Canada
2023: ART OMI, NY

Others

Curated Exhibitions

2014: Pre-exhibition Welcome back, Calo Gallery, Osaka
Welcome back, Jisen Center, Osaka
2016: Screening ‘Melting Point’, the Hide Sheffield, FRISE Hamburg, The Third Gallery Aya Osaka, Satellite Gallery at Aich Art University
2017: Bamboo x Art ⇒ Encounter Aisai Land, Osaka
Melting Point 2, MEM, Tokyo
2019-20: JISEN CONTEMPORARY SHORT FILM & VIDEO AWARD, Jisen Center, Osaka
2020: HER/HISTORY, Jisen Center, Osaka

Social Activities

2017-: Cultural Promotion Council Deliberation Committee in Kishiwada city
2019-20: Art producer at Kishiwada Cultural Association
2020-2022: Art Manager at Osaka Arts Council
2020-: Part-time lecturer at Osaka Sangyo University
2023-2025: Artistic Director, OAG Art Center Kobe
2025-: Part-time lecturer at Kobe University
Director at AOTO Art

Lecture and workshop(Selected)

2022: Special lecture, Kyoto Art University
2023: One to One Performance Workshop、Kyoto Prefectural University
2024, 2025: Workshop、Ritsumeikan University

Artist Statement

: My work creates a space where boundaries—such as self and other, life and death, nature and the artificial, truth and fiction—begin to waver.
Through video and performance, repetition and duration give rise to visual and semantic transformations.
Mirrors reflect symmetrically and fragment images, containing reality and unreality, the present and the past, as well as futures yet to be seen.
Artificial objects that imitate life, along with materials that evoke decay, simultaneously reveal processes of generation and collapse, shifting the boundaries between living and non-living, life and non-life.
Through these materials and forms, relationships are loosened in their in-between states, unsettling the viewer’s bodily perception, sense of time, and reality, within which a miracle-like quality of being in this moment gradually comes to be felt.