Keiko Kamma

Artist, Director of Art Lab Tokyo

 

Kamma transitioned to contemporary art following a career as a pianist. In this new chapter, she initiated her conceptual photography series, “Ready-Made” Phenomena, which captures everyday life while harboring a transformation of values. Utilizing a “cut-up” photography technique to present “art that already exists within the mind,” she captures artistic and art-like phenomena that evoke abstract expressionism or contemporary art on the streets of New York, Paris, Berlin, London, Venice, Montreal, Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo. This core theme—"art existing as a phenomenon without the need for creation"—has formed the foundation of her practice ever since. Expanding her artistic language, she has since created works spanning installation, performance, sound, photography, painting, and video, showcasing her work at art festivals and exhibitions across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

In the realm of sound performance, she presented “Water Moon” (Kodai-ji Temple, Kyoto, 2008 / UK-Japan Project “Tsuki - The Moon”), a light installation in a Zen temple garden synchronized with a sound piece that combined abstract sounds with dismantled words from traditional Japanese Waka and Haiku poems. In addition to sound installations in traditional tearooms, she has been active in improvisational performance as a duo with noise artist Taisuke Morishita. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, their collaborative sound, video, and live painting work “BEYOND COVID-19” (Keiko Kamma + Taisuke Morishita) was selected for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's "Cheer for Art!" project. Furthermore, in recent years, she has been exploring the state of painting in an era permeated by AI, creating works that navigate the fine line between the figurative and the abstract.

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Selected Exhibitions 

 

■ 2026 “CON/PER/CEPTUAL#5: Unknown Stories” (Curator and participant, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2025 “MINI-ARTURA” (GALERIE MILLENIUM, Prague, Czech Republic / traveled to Berlin and New York)

■ 2025 “Dynamic Contemporary Artists Exhibition” (Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan)

■ 2024 “VUIV!” exhibition (Hikarie CUBE, Tokyo)

■ 2023 “International Fusionismo” (Kurpachia Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic)

■ 2022 “Untitled” Keiko Kamma solo show (Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2021 Tokyo Biennale “Yubido Regeneration Project” (Tokyo)

■ 2020 “BEYOND COVID-19” (Keiko Kamma + Taisuke Morishita / collaborative sound, video, and live painting work, selected for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's "Cheer for Art!" project)

■ 2020 “DAHA!” exhibition (Hikarie CUBE, Tokyo)

■ 2019 “TIME” exhibition (IF Museum, Pennsylvania, USA)

■ 2019 “VU!” exhibition (Hikarie CUBE, Tokyo)

■ 2018 “Abandoned Desire Fetishism” (Solo show, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2018 “CON/PER/CEPTUAL#4: Disappearing — Art of Vanishing” (Curator and participant, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2017 “Living Life” (Gallery ZEIN XENO, Seoul, South Korea)

■ 2017 “Mustanglers” (Hikarie CUBE, Tokyo)

■ 2016 “JUXTAPOSITION” (Art Lab Tokyo)

■2014 Ravi Festival (International Art Performance Festival, Yaoundé, Cameroon)

■ 2014 “CON/PER/CEPTUAL#3: Exhibiting Sound” (Curator, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2013 “The Invisible Realms” (Solo show, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2012 “‘Ready-Made’ Phenomena” (Solo show, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2012 “CON/PER/CEPTUAL#2: Delicacies for the Thinking Mind — Photography” (Curator and participant, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2011 “Agua de Beber” (Performance, Shinko Pier Exhibition Hall / Yokohama Triennale: Special Associated Program; “InterAzioni XXIV” / Festival Internazionale di Performance Arts, Videoarte e Installazioni, Sardinia, Italy)

■ 2011 “CON/PER/CEPTUAL: Delicacies for the Thinking Mind” (Curator and participant, Art Lab Tokyo)

■ 2010 “GIRLY 2010” (Kawasaki City Museum, Kawasaki, Japan)

■ 2010 The UK-Japan project, “Between time and space” (Commemorative Exhibition of the 1300th Anniversary of Nara Heijo-kyo Capital, Heijo Palace Site, Nara, Japan)

■ 2010 “Nara Art Bridge” (Curator and participant, Daijo-in Temple Garden Public Space / Nara Prefecture Cultural Hall, Nara, Japan)

■ 2008 “Tsuki - The Moon” (UK-Japan Project, Kodai-ji Temple, Kyoto, Japan)