{"id":1929518,"date":"2026-05-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1929518"},"modified":"2026-05-11T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T06:00:00","slug":"how-painter-akira-ikezoe-became-the-springs-breakout-star-in-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1929518","title":{"rendered":"How Painter Akira Ikezoe Became the Spring\u2019s Breakout Star in New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0062_262104_Akira-Ikezoe-Photo-Christopher-Garcia-Valle.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tAkira Ikezoe has recently been thinking a lot about all that can be done with milk. It can be obtained from a cow, packaged, sold, and consumed, yes. But what if you could paint with it, or bathe in it, or even become resurrected by drinking it?<\/p>\n

\n\tThese are all scenarios that appear in a new painting by Ikezoe that features an array of naked figures (and some skeletons) who are roped into a dairy-centric system that happens to involve a pit of fire and a large mural. In typical Ikezoe fashion, everything is depicted with the sobriety of a diagram in an instruction manual. It\u2019s funny, bizarre, and more than a little terrifying.<\/p>\n

\n\tStanding before the painting in his New York studio, Ikezoe pointed to the top of the canvas, where faceless people pull at the udders of two cows. \u201cThey are taking milk out of the cow, and they start using the milk as paint,\u201d Ikezoe said, narrating the scene. \u201cBut someone kicked the can of paint and stepped on it, leaving footprints. Then some people fall into holes and die. On the right side, there are four boxes, almost like seasonal change\u2014spring, summer, etc. In winter, a skeleton comes out. Skeletons help them mix milk, and the milk goes into these shoestrings and comes down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHaving articulated that whole narrative with a straight face, Ikezoe finally cracked a smile. \u201cYeah, I know it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d he said, letting out a big laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis works\u2019 refusal to adhere to rational ways of thinking is intentional. \u201cI pick up many different things from the real world and create something new, re-establishing a world inside of myself,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m entertaining myself without meaning or purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ikezoe standing beside one of his latest paintings. \u201cYeah, I know it doesn\u2019t make sense,\u201d he said.<\/span>Christopher Garcia Valle\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tIkezoe\u2019s attempts to remake the universe according to his own absurdist logic have earned him many admirers this spring, thanks to his simultaneous appearances in two prestigious New York shows: the Whitney Biennial and MoMA PS1\u2019s Greater New York, a recurring survey for artists based in the city. He is one of just two artists in both of those exhibitions, the other being Ta\u00edna H. Cruz.<\/p>\n

\n\tAppearing in both shows would be a career-making moment for any artist, but it\u2019s all the more notable in Ikezoe\u2019s case because he was not so well-known in New York before, despite having steadily shown in the city since he moved from Tokyo in 2010. He doesn\u2019t even have a New York gallery. Instead, he is represented by Proyectos Ultravioleta, a beloved commercial space in Guatemala City that is known for spinning artists with small but loyal followings into biennial-circuit superstars. Ikezoe seems poised for that exact trajectory, with his current showings after he was included in the 2025 Sharjah Biennial alongside artists such as Wael Shawky, Richard Bell, and Raven Chacon.<\/p>\n

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Ikezoe\u2019s workstation. His painting process is inspired by his education in printmaking, he said.<\/span>Christopher Garcia Valle\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tDespite all the curators and critics who have come knocking at his small, orderly studio on the fifth floor of a Midtown tower over the past few months, Ikezoe maintains a quiet presence. Donning a slate-colored Outdoor Research jacket atop a grey shirt, he expressed a willingness to hear out others\u2019 analyses of his paintings, even though he didn\u2019t always agree with them. \u201cSometimes, people see the animals as symbols,\u201d he told me. \u201cThey see frogs, and they automatically think about, like, bad politicians.\u201d He thought for a second, then added, \u201cOkay, yeah, but that\u2019s not what I\u2019m doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Akira Ikezoe, Robot Stories Around Solar Panels<\/em>, 2025.<\/span>Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City, Guatemala<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tCompared to much of these other works in the Whitney Biennial, Ikezoe\u2019s work does have a lighter touch. Robot Stories Around Solar Panels<\/em> (2025), one of his paintings in that show, features machine people harvesting pearls from giant clamshells and posing as Botticelli\u2019s Birth of Venus<\/em>. This could all be read as a joke if not for the fact that other robot workers nearby are engaged in the process of building solar paneling\u2014devices that could one day help solve an energy crisis.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPutting animals in his work allows him to talk about serious issues without the doom and gloom of disaster aesthetics,\u201d Marcela Guerrero, a curator of the Whitney Biennial, said. \u201cThe whimsy is a vehicle to enter these heavier topics.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A sketch for one of Ikezoe\u2019s paintings.<\/span>Christopher Garcia Valle\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tRuba Katrib, a curator of Greater New York, said, \u201cThere are many, many reactions when looking at his work. It\u2019s humorous, but then, when you figure out what\u2019s going on, there\u2019s definitely a feeling of sublime horror. There\u2019s more going on in these paintings than meets the eye.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIkezoe\u2019s own words seemed to prove Guerrero and Katrib right. During our studio visit, he spoke extensively about the destructive Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 and at one point showed me a manila folder filled with evacuation manuals pilfered from airplanes. \u201cEvery time I ride an airplane, I get one,\u201d he said. The diagrams of passengers pulling out floatation devices and assuming crash position were presented with a crisp, legible aesthetic similar to the look of Ikezoe\u2019s paintings. \u201cThese are really just illustrating a story and doing it visually,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Ikezoe showing off his personal collection of airplane instructional booklets.<\/span>Christopher Garcia Valle\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tHe was born in a suburb of the Japanese city of Kochi in 1979 and moved to Tokyo when he was 18 to study in Tama Art University\u2019s printmaking program. He\u2019d begun making oil paintings as a high-school student and expressed a desire to continue that path while at the university. \u201cI told my professor that I wanted to paint, but the professor said, \u2018No, here, you have to learn printmaking.\u2019 So I did for four years, and it was a little boring for me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut there was a good side,\u201d Ikezoe added. Oil paint, he pointed out, dries very slowly, so he would obsessively return to the same work over and over, rarely knowing when to stop. \u201cPrintmaking is very different. You have to decide how to finish one image beforehand, and the rest is very automatic\u2014just this color, this color, this color, and done. After graduating university, my oil paintings changed a bit: The color became thin, and I\u2019d make one, two, maybe three layers. The printmaking process influenced me.\u201d His earliest mature paintings, often filled with snarling creatures arranged in chaotic formations, started to include monochromatic backgrounds that became a staple in his art.<\/p>\n

\n\tFeeling dissatisfied with Japan\u2019s art scene, Ikezoe started turning his attention to New York, where he began exhibiting at a now defunct gallery called Esso. He moved to the city in 2010, two years after his first Esso show, because the city\u2019s artists \u201chad ideas we never thought of\u201d in Japan. Did he ever have any desire to go back? \u201cZero,\u201d he said. \u201cI got married to a Guatemalan woman\u201d\u2014the artist Jessica Kair\u00e9\u2014\u201cand my son goes to school in New York. Our life is here.\u201d (Guerrero, the Whitney Biennial curator, said Ikezoe was one of the few male artists she\u2019d ever met who regularly brings up being a father.)<\/p>\n

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Akira Ikezoe, Chart of Darkness<\/em>, 2025.<\/span>Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City, Guatemala<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tWhen Ikezoe came to New York, he was able to read English, thanks in part to his mother, who taught the language to Japanese high schoolers. \u201cListening and speaking were totally different,\u201d he said. While he tried to make sense of this new way of communicating, he began to paint grids of unlike objects grouped less by function than aesthetic. \u201cBecause I couldn\u2019t speak English, I started collecting images by category,\u201d he said. \u201cI think I\u2019m making up my own version of categorization. I\u2019m still doing it.\u201d A new painting from the series in the PS1 show, for example, features a bomb next to a bulging eyeball, an \u201cO\u201d with an umlaut next to a ball of yarn, and the creepy twins from The Shining<\/em> next to a pair of dogs.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe year after Ikezoe moved to New York, an earthquake and tsunami in Japan caused an electrical grid failure, leading the nuclear power plant in Fukushima to release radioactive contaminants in the surrounding region. \u201cI started really thinking about our relationship to nature, the way nature and culture are always invading each other, which is just what happened in Fukushima,\u201d he said. His paintings became increasingly concerned with nonhumans, the transmission of energy, and faltering systems. He also produced an animation, Hole<\/em> (2014), in which a nude version of himself traipses through a colorless world populated by hybrid beings, include a dog-headed fly that at one point transports Ikezoe\u2019s dismembered head back to the rest of his body.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s taking life at face value,\u201d said Zeynep \u00d6z, a curator of the 2025 Sharjah Biennial that included Ikezoe. \u201cThere\u2019s so much despair about the things he\u2019s going through, so much disillusionment, but it\u2019s very light in the face of all that grave stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Akira Ikezoe, Clam and the Sun<\/em>, 2025.<\/span>Courtesy the artist and Proyectos Ultravioleta, Guatemala City, Guatemala<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\t\u00d6z\u2019s invitation to Ikezoe coincided with a change in his thinking. At the time, he was not in favor of nuclear power, but he started to wonder if it may still hold out possibilities for the future. \u201cI\u2019m still against nuclear power plants,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I understand the need for them in this moment\u2014there are so many wars. But I\u2019m hopeful that technology will replace them. That was probably the beginning of me being interested in new technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said he was currently at work on a painting about aquaponics, wherein fish poop helps power a system that is less reliant on water and land than others like it. \u201cI was watching this documentary about a Japanese scientist whose dream is to make [aquaponics] happen in outer space, to make food for astronauts,\u201d he said. \u201cBut he was saying that right now, a person is still needed to feed the fish, so to fully close the circulation, humans actually have to be a part of it. I\u2019m making my own version of this system with human participation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI told Ikezoe that it seemed as though he were effectively envisioning ways to use power more equitably and more sustainably. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to happen in the real world, right?\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying creating my own world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/artists\/akira-ikezoe-paintings-whitney-biennial-moma-ps1-1234784714\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0062_262104_Akira-Ikezoe-Photo-Christopher-Garcia-Valle.jpg?w=1024″] Akira Ikezoe has recently been thinking a lot about all that can be done with milk. It can be obtained from a cow, packaged, sold, and consumed, yes. But what if you could paint with it, or bathe in it, or even become resurrected by drinking it? These are all scenarios that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1929518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1929518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1929518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1929518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1929518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}