Zon Ito
1971
born in Osaka, Japan
lives and works in Kyoto
1996
Graduated from Kyoto City University of Art, Japan, B.A
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS (selection)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, Japan
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, US
The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Drawing On The Sand, Sand On The Drawing, Konrad Fischer Galerie4, Düsseldorf
2017
soil, bark, wool yarn, video etc transformation, Ya-gins, Maebashi, Japan
2016
The Strange Moves That We Make, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Zon Ito, Galerie Michael Werner, Trebbin, Germany
2011
Tide Movements and Nonchalant Objects, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2009 - 2010
Camp, Zon Ito & Ryoko Aoki, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2009
April Pool, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2008
bi-bi-x, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2007
Space of NEW TOWN, Littlemore Chika, Tokyo
2006
Three Individuals, Zon Ito x Hajime Imamura x Yoshihiro Suda,, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2005
Key of your Fountain, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
2004
Veins, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
2003
The End of the Neighbourhood, Watari-Um, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2002
Alchemist Meeting, Kyoto Art Centre, Kyoto, Japan
Leap, Kohji Ogura Gallery, Nagoya, Japan
2001
bula-bula liquids, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
ZON ITO EXHIBITION, On Sundays; Watari-Um, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2000
Yamanami Highway, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
I Love Art 16: Vision -focusing on drawings by 15 artists, Watari-Um, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art,Tokyo, Japan
2021
Somewhere Between the Odd and the Ordinary, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
2020
Ryoko Aoki x Zon Ito WORKSHOP FREE MOLECULES METAMORPHOSES, Watari-Um, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2019
Rokko Meets Art 2019, Mt. Rokko, Hyogo, Japan
Reborn Art Festival, Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan
Taka Ishii Gallery 25th Anniversary Group Exhibition: Survied!, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2018
Ryoko Aoki and Zon Ito, Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix, London, UK
helen at the mountain, Tetsuo’s Garage, Nikko, Japan
2017
Japanorama. New visions of art since 1970, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France
Asia Corridor Contemporary Art Exhibition, Nijo Castle, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan
Reborn Art Festival, Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan
Tsubaki-kai 2017 – Shoshin –, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2016
The State of this World : Thought and the Arts, Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, Hyogo, Japan
Troedsson Villa Mountain School 2016, statements, Tokyo, Japan
Recent Acquisitions: A Selection 2016-2016, Arts Maebashi, Gunma, Japan
Tsubaki-kai 2016 – Shoshin –, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Contemporary Art Exhibition at Kyomachiya, Seisyun Gallery, Kyoto, Japan
2015
TWO STICKS, Think Tank Lab Triennale, The Museum of Architecture, Wroclaw, Poland
Contemporary tales from the province 3 – Susaki artist in residence,Susaki Machikado
Gallery; Kyu-Miura-Tei, Susaki-shi, Kochi, Japan
SOMETHINKS, Art Laboratory Hashimoto, Sagamihara
Distant Neighborhood- INSIDE OUT, Gallery Fleur; Kyoto Seika University, Kyoto, Japan
Tsubaki-kai 2015 – Shoshin –, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Takahashi Collection: Mirror Neuron, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Mountain / Full Edition, @KUCA, Kyoto University of Arts, Kyoto, Japan
distant neighborhood, Kara-S, Tsukuru Building 104A, Kyoto, Japan
Wabi Sabi Shima, Thalie Art Foundation, Brussels, Belgium
2014
Nippon now- Junge japanische Kunst und das Rheinland, E.ON, Düsseldorf, Germany
floating nature, Gallery W, Tokyo, Japan
Arts Maebashi Symposium - 3 days Symposium about Art and Local Communities, Arts
Maebashi Maebashi, Japan
Tsubaki-kai 2014 - Shoshin -, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013
kei fu syu jo, Sapporo Odori 500-m Underground Walkway Gallery, Hokkaido, Sapporo, Japan
Community Art Project, Isobeyu, Maebashi, Gunma, Japan
t-shirts, Taka Ishii Gallery Modern, Tokyo, Japan
kei fu syu jo, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan
Now Japan, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoot, The Netherlands
Tsubaki-kai 2013 - Shoshin-, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Welcome to The Small World, Takamatsu Museum of Art, Kagawa
2012
Experimenta Speak to Me, 5th International Biennial of Media Arts, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Parallel Universe, yu-un, Tokyo
Beppu mimicry (KASHIMA 2012 BEPPU ARTIST IN RESIDENCE), platform05, Oita, Japan
2011
Ways of Worldmaking, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Pathos and Small Narratives - Japanese Contemporary Art, Gana Art Center, Seoul, Korea
CAFE in Mito 2011- - Relationships in Color, Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Gallery, Mito, Japan
Invisibleness is Visibleness–International Contemporary Art Collection of a Salaryman - Daisuke Miyatsu, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan
Art in an Office, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan
I Love Art 11: Heartbeat, Watari-Um, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art,Tokyo, Japan
2010
Primary Field II, The Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, Japan
NEOTENY JAPAN Contemporary Artists after 1990 - from Takahashi Collection, Yonago City Museum of Art
BEPPU PROJECT 2010 Art, Dance, Architecture and the City, platform06, Beppu, Oita, Japan
CHAOS*LOUNGE 2010, Takahashi Collection Hibiya, Tokyo, Japan
2009
TIME, Konrad Fischer Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany
By the Water-lily Pond - Monet, Yoshihiro Suda and Zon Ito, Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art, Kyoto, Japan
Stitch by Stitch: Traces I Made with Needle and Thread, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Louisa Bufardeci and Zon Ito, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia
Summer Playground - Special feature; Zon Ito + Teppei Kaneuji, MOT Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
NEOTENY JAPAN Contemporary Artists after 1990 - from Takahashi Collection, Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo; Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Nagaoka; Akita Museum of Modern Art, Yokote; Yonago Museum of Art, Nakamachi
2008
When Lives Become Form: Dialogue with The Future Brazil, Museo de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
NEOTENY JAPAN Contemporary Artists after 1990 - from Takahashi Collection, Kirishima Museum, Kagoshima; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sapporo
3rd Nanjing Triennial - Reflective Asia, RCM The Museum of Modern Art, Nanjing, China
2007
La Chaine, BankART 1929, Yokohama, Japan
ignore your perspective 4, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Painting as Forest: Artist as Thinker, Okazaki City Museum, Okazaki, Japan
Taro Okamoto Memorial Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2006
Psychic Scope, Space*C, Seoul, Korea
Nature in Dreams, Gunma Museum of Art, Tatebayashi, Japan
With Marcel Duchamp, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
ignore your perspective 2, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2005
ignore your perspective, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
HITO, Borderless Art Gallery NO-MA, Omihachiman
The 11th Triennale India, Rabindra Bharan Galleries, New Delhi, India
2004
WHY NOT LIVE FOR ART?, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2003
Study, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Slow Painting, Daiwa Radiator Factory Viewing Room, Hiroshima, Japan
Art Court Frontier 2003, Art Court Gallery, Osaka, Japan
How Latitudes Become Forms, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, MN
2002
Private Luxury, Manno Art Museum, Osaka, Japan
Beautiful Life, Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Gallery, Mito, Japan
Art in Transit, The Palace Side Hotel, Kyoto
2001
KYOTO x AMSTERDAM - New Directions -, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto /Traveling to Sundberg 2, St. Nicholas Chapel, PARADISO, Amsterdam (2002), International Triennale of Contemporary Art Yokohama 2001, Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall, Yokohama
International Triennale of Contemporary Art Yokohama 2001, Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall, Yokohama, Japan
The Vision of Contemporary Art 2001, The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2000
Psychic Scope, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
1999
FLOW, Kodama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
Doughnut, On Sundays; Watari-Um,The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; TokyoFLOW, Tokyo; Kodama Gallery, Osaka, Japan
SELECTED BOOKS AND CATALOGUES
2018
Zon Ito, The Strange Moves That We Make, Taka Ishii Gallery
2013
Zon Ito, A Collection of Specimens: From the Vaults of Kyoto University Museum, Tokyo (Catalogue).
2011
Zon Ito, Nonchalant Objects, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo (Catalogue).
2007
Vera Tollmann, "Aoki Ryoko", in: Kat. documenta 12, Kassel.
2005
Adriano Pedrosa, "Ryoko Aoki", in: Vitamin D. New Perspectives in Drawing, London: Phaidon.
2004
Ryoko Aoki + Zon Ito, Roppongi Crossing. New Visions in Contemporary Japanese Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (Catalogue).
2003
Philippe Vergne, Zon Ito, How Latitudes Become Form. Art in a Global Age, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (Catalogue).
Zon Ito, Slow Painting, Daiwa Radiator Factory Viewing Room, Hiroshima (Catalogue).
2002
Beautiful Life, Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Tokyo (Catalogue).
SELECTED ARTICLES
2005
Philippe Vergne, "Zon Ito and Ryoko Aoki", in: ARTFORUM.
2002
Zon Ito and Ryoko Aoki, Zero-Zero-Generation. Nippon 2002 / BT Bijutsu Techno, vol. 54, no. 816.
