Kota Ezawa

Kota Ezawa’s work explores the appropriation and mediation

of current events and images, referencing sources from the

news, art history, and popular culture. Since the debut of his

2002 video animation The Simpson Verdict, Ezawa has been

well-known for creating light-boxes, videos, and works on

paper that distill found images into his signature pared-down,

flattened style. By reducing complex visual information to its

most essential, two-dimensional elements, he explores the

photographic record’s validity as a mediator of actual events

and experiences.

Ezawa was born in Germany, where he began his undergraduate studies at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf with

Nam Jun Paik and Nan Hoover before relocating to the Bay

Area. His work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Barbara, CA (2018); SITE

Santa Fe, NM (2017); Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA (2017);

Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA (2015); Albright-Knox Art

Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2013); Vancouver Art Gallery, Canada

(2012); St. Louis Art Museum, MO (2008); and group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,

NY (2019, 2006); Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid,

Spain (2017); Queensland Art Gallery | Gallrey of Modern

Art, Brisbane, Australia (2017); San Francisco Museum of

Modern Art, CA (2016, 2011, 2010, 2007); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C (2013, 2008);

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (2012, 2008);

and Art Institute of Chicago, IL (2007); among many others.

Ezawa received a SECA Art Award in 2006 and a Eureka

Fellowship in 2010. His work has been acquired by leading

institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum

of Modern Art, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture

Garden; Art Institute of Chicago; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los

Angeles, CA; Musée D’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Canada; and Baltimore Museum of Art, MD. He has been the subject of several monographic publications, including The Crime

of Art (2017) and The History of Photography Remix (2006).