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  ©Michiko Kon

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  ©Michiko Kon

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  ©Michiko Kon

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  ©Michiko Kon

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  ©Michiko Kon

Since the beginning of her career in the mid-1980s, Michiko Kon has channeled the surreal realities of her imagination into objects made from materials such as vegetables, fish, flowers and insects, then captured them in photographs.

In recent years, her work has confronted themes of mortality more directly. In addition to the fresh ingredients of earlier works, she has begun to use taxidermied animals, insect specimens, silkworms, larvae and processed foods such as chikuwa fish cakes. Her stark juxtapositions of live and taxidermied parrots, for example, are part of an approach to capturing life, death and reincarnation in a more real, unflinching spirit.

Adorned with flowers and eyes, Kon’s odd objects, animals and lost antiques are transformed into fantastical creatures whose inexplicable sensuality and vitality seem to extend beyond the silver halide prints. Like the creatures that populate the worlds of folklore and myth, Michiko Kon’s imaginary beasts speak to our morality and act as symbolic expressions of her own views on life, death and devotion.

Kon’s uncanny creations and the eerie silence that surrounds them evoke a range of primal sensations. Her imagery reaches into the depths of our instincts, stimulating emotions from disgust to desire.

Michiko Kon

Born in Kamakura. She was the recipient of the 16th Kimura Ihei Award for the work EAT (P.G.I.) in 1991 and Lifetime Achievement Award, Photographic Society of Japan Awards in 2022.

Her recent solo exhibitions include philia – KON Michiko, The Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura Annex (Kamakura 2021, Michiko Kon, iGallery (Tokyo 2021), Recent Works 2018, PGI (Tokyo 2018), Naturaleza Muerta, Fototeca Nacional Sinafo. INAH (Pachuca, Mexico 2017), Michiko Kon, Michel Soskine Gallery (Madrid 2017), Michiko Kon, Universidad Veracruzana (Xalapa, Mmexico 2016), Recent Works, PGI (Tokyo 2014).

Her recent group exhibitions include I’’m So Happy You Are Here, Palais de L’ARCHEVÊCHÉ (Arles 2024), From Japan with Love, Galerie Huit Arles (Arles 2024).

Her photographs are in the collections of The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum of Vincent Van Gogh, among others.