Artists | MAKI Gallery | MAKI

Born in 1975 in Nagano, Japan, Susumu Kamijo currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Kamijo moved to the United States at the age of 16 and completed a BFA at the University of Oregon in 2000, followed by an MFA at the University of Washington in 2002. Kamijo explores the abstraction of familiar motifs such as animals and human faces through the distortion of color and shape and has been actively producing a series of drawings and paintings featuring poodles since 2014. A longtime creative partner of the artist, the poodle continues its formal evolution year by year—in addition to its increasing abstraction, the incorporation of various compositional structures, color palettes, backdrops, and patterns has allowed Kamijo to establish his own readily recognizable visual lexicon. In his most recent works, the artist has begun including other subjects such as birds, fish, and cats, reflecting his enthusiasm for taking on new challenges as his style matures.
The artist’s recent solo exhibitions include The Motherland, Venus Over Manhattan (New York, NY, 2023); The Sun Inside, Perrotin (Paris, 2023); Jack and Venus, Jack Hanley Gallery and Venus Over Manhattan (New York, NY, 2022); Alone with Everybody, Perrotin (Seoul, 2022); How Was Your Summer?, Harper’s (East Hampton, 2021); and Beyond The Hills, MAKI Gallery (Tokyo, 2021). He has also participated in group shows and art fairs across the globe, including in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Greece, Hong Kong, and Mexico, while continuing to primarily exhibit his work in the United States and Europe.