TADA KOIICHIRO Japan, b. 1992

Born in 1992 in Koganei, Tokyo, Tada Koiichiro studied at the Tokyo University of the Arts, where he won the Prize of Metro Cultural Foundation during the Graduation Works Exhibition in 2016. He later received his MFA from the same university in 2018. Employing a soft and delicate technique of oil on canvas, the artist mainly paints large monochromatic close-up portraits staring right at the viewer. The most noticeable detail in Koiichiro’s compositions is his characters’ eyes which, similar to water pools filled with lilies, work as the gates to their inner worlds, secrets and fears. With his minimal representations, one cannot look past the strong reference to Yoshimoto Nara’s characters and the world of Xiaogang, which Koiichiro reinterprets through a psychoanalytical lens amid at guiding the viewer into the abyss of human existence.