Ayako Tabata (born 1975), also known under her artist name Tabaimo, is a contemporary

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

artist. She combines hand-drawn images and digital manipulation to create large scale animations which evoke traditional Japanese woodblock prints (''

ukiyo-e Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...

'') while presenting a pointed, complex view of Japanese society. The name "Tabaimo" is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsいもうと), meaning "little sister."

Early life and education

Ayako Tabata was born in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. She is the middle of three sisters. Her father was a

salaryman In Japan, a is a salaried worker. In Japanese popular culture, this is embodied by a white-collar worker who shows overriding loyalty and commitment to the corporation where he works. Salarymen are expected to work long hours, to put in addit ...

; her mother, Shion Tabata, is a

ceramicist Ceramic art is art made from ceramic materials, including clay. It may take forms including artistic pottery, including tableware, tiles, figurines and other sculpture. As one of the plastic arts, ceramic art is one of the visual arts. Wh ...

who creates traditional dinnerware in the style of

Ogata Kenzan , originally , and also known by the pseudonym Shisui, was a Japanese potter and painter. Biography Ogata Kenzan was born in Kyoto into a rich merchant family. His older brother was the painter Ogata Kōrin (1658–1716). Kenzan studied with t ...

. She graduated from

Kyoto University of Art and Design is a private university in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan. The predecessor of the school was founded in 1934. It was chartered as a junior college in 1977 and became a four-year college in 1991, known as the Kyoto University of Art and Design ...

in 1999.

Career

Tabaimo's first video installation, ''Japanese Kitchen'', directed while she was still a student, attracted attention. Yuka Uematsu, a curator at the

National Museum of Art, Osaka is a subterranean Japanese art museum located on the island of Nakanoshima, located between the Dōjima River and the Tosabori River, about 10 minutes west of Higobashi Station in central Osaka. The official Japanese title of the museum tran ...

, said, "When I first saw her work, I really couldn't believe that a university student had made it ��She was focusing on typical Japanese society, but critically, in her own way." Tabaimo's first solo show came in 2000 at Kirin Plaza in

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

, after she'd won the company's Contemporary Award competition. This was followed by inclusion in two international art events, the Yokohama Trienniale (2001) and the Sao Paulo Bienniale (2002). Tabaimo considered a career in design; in 2003 she worked as a graphic designer in London before she decided to pursue a full-time career as an artist. Although Tabaimo creates more traditionally-formatted drawings and paintings, she has gained a reputation for her video installations. They are generally site-specific, usually projected on multiple planes, suggestive of rooms. The pop artist

Keiichi Tanaami is one of the leading pop artists of postwar Japan, and has been active as multi-genre artist since the 1960s as a graphic designer, illustrator, video artist and fine artist. Biography Keiichi Tanaami was born on 21 July 1936 as the eldes ...

, an instructor at Kyoto University, was an important early influence. Tabaimo's work features elements of manga and

anime is hand-drawn and computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

, but it is also inspired by traditional Japanese art forms, particularly ''

'' woodblock printing. Birds, insects, sea creatures, and tortoises often appear in her work, intermingling with humans and disembodied human parts in both natural and urban environments, which at times morph into surreal landscapes. The transformation of familiar objects and situations has the effect of not only questioning their meaning, but challenging the viewer's perception of the work itself: "I don’t just put the work in front of them and make it a comfortable experience for them – they need to be proactive in their viewing...I think the viewers’ stories themselves are the work, so...by setting up spaces which cause the viewer discomfort — spaces which have elements in them that need to be overcome — the works become a participatory experience," she said in 2007. Tabaimo rarely explains her works within exhibitions.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions include: ''Utsutsushi Utsushi'',

Seattle Asian Art Museum The Seattle Asian Art Museum (often abbreviated to SAAM) is a museum of Asian art at Volunteer Park in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, United States. Part of the Seattle Art Museum, the SAAM exhibits historic and contemp ...

, Seattle, WA (2016);

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast artists of the 20th and 21st centur ...

, San Jose, CA (2016); ''MEKURUMEKU'',

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), located on George Street in Sydney's The Rocks neighbourhood, is solely dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting, and collecting contemporary art, from across Australia and around the world. It is ...

, NSW, Australia (2014); ''Boundary Layer'', Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London (2010); ''Danmen'',

Yokohama Museum of Art , founded in 1989, is located in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21 district of the Japanese city Yokohama, next to the Yokohama Landmark Tower. The collections The museum has works by many influential and well-known modern artists including Consta ...

, Tokyo (traveled to the

) (2009–10);

Moderna Museet Moderna Museet ("the Museum of Modern Art"), Stockholm, Sweden, is a state museum for modern and contemporary art located on the island of Skeppsholmen in central Stockholm, opened in 1958. In 2009, the museum opened a new branch in Malmö i ...

, Stockholm (2009);

Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain The Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, known simply as the Fondation Cartier, is a contemporary art museum located at 261 boulevard Raspail in the 14th arrondissement of the French capital, Paris. History The Fondation Cartier was cr ...

, Paris (2006); ''YOROYORON'', Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2006). Tabaimo represented Japan with ''teleco-soup'' at the 54th International Art Exhibition,

La Biennale di Venezia The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

(2011). International group exhibitions include: the Yokohama Triennale (2001); the São Paulo Art Biennial (2002); the 15th

Biennale of Sydney The Biennale of Sydney is an international festival of contemporary art, held every two years in Sydney, Australia. It is a large and well-attended contemporary visual arts event in the country. Alongside the Venice and São Paulo biennales and ...

, Australia (2006); and the 52nd International Art Exhibition,

(2007). Interdisciplinary collaboration is a major part of Tabaimo’s artistic endeavor. Since 2006 she has provided visual elements to performances with

Ohad Naharin Ohad () was the third son of Simeon; he is mentioned in Genesis 46:10. Ohad may also refer to: __NOTOC__ People Surname * Daniella Ohad, American design historian Given name * Ohad Benchetrit, Canadian musician * Ohad Cohen, goalkeeper for Hapo ...

’s Batsheva Dance Company, choreographer Maki Morishita, architect Yuko Nagayama, and photographer

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm New Material Research Laboratory. Early life and education Hiroshi Sugimoto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He reportedly took his earliest photographs ...

. Tabaimo later worked again with Maki Morishita to create "Fruits borne out of rust". Her work can be found in the collections of the National Museum of Art, Osaka; Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MUSAC, Spain; Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm;

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ...

, CA; Asia Society Museum, New York, NY; and the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, NY.Anne Mosseri-Marlio Galerie (Basel/CH) -artist biography; http://annemoma.com/artists/18138/tabaimo/biography/ retvd 12 4 16

Personal life

In 2008, after six years of living in Tokyo, Tabaimo moved into her parents' home in Karuizawa, a resort town in Nagano prefecture, along with her younger sister and primary assistant Imoimu.

References

{{Authority control 1975 births Living people Japanese contemporary artists Japanese women artists Kyoto University of the Arts alumni