Kota Ezawa

Kota Ezawa (born 1969, Cologne, Germany)[1] is a Japanese-German American artist and arts educator.[2] His artwork usually responds to current events from sources in the news, pop culture, and art history. Ever since his debut 2002 video animation of The Simpson Verdict, Ezawa has been known for his flattened style in works on paper, light-boxes, and videos. By flattening his pieces into more two-dimensional figures, he creates more focus on the re-contextualized historical events in his pieces.

Kota Ezawa
Born1969 (age 51–52)
Cologne, Germany
EducationKunstakademie Düsseldorf (1990-1994)
Alma materSan Francisco Art Institute (SFAI), Stanford University

Originally from Germany, he moved to San Francisco in 1994 and is currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area.[3]

Biography

Ezawa grew up outside Stuttgart, Germany in a rural area, his father was an immigrant to Germany from Japan.[4][5] He attended Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1990 until 1994 and studied with Nan Hoover and Nam June Paik.[6][7] He moved in 1994 to San Francisco, California.[7] He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1995 from San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI). In 2003 he received his Master of Fine Arts degree from Stanford University.[6]

Since 2000, Ezawa has produced his own abstracted computer animations.[8] His work often juxtaposes seemingly contrary videos, politics, and celebrity recounting historical events, reminding the viewer that history is seen through an interpretative lens.

In 2005 he received the Artadia Award.[9] In 2006, Ezawa received a SECA Art Award.[10][11]

He is an Associate Professor of Film and Fine Arts at California College of the Arts (CCA).[12]

Kota Ezawa has exhibited his work in solo exhibitions at Chrysler Museum of Art (2015), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (2013), Wexner Center for the Arts (2009), St. Louis Art Museum, Artpace (2006), the Wadsworth Atheneum and many others.[13][9]

Work
  • Simpson Verdict (2002): Ezawa took three years to create the 3 minute animation of the O.J. Simpson’s verdict.[14][15][4] The animation reduces the international event to an exaggerated, simple cartoon. This work is in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) permanent collection.[16]
  • The History of Photography Remix (2004–2006) This project explored how photographs act as a reflection of reality and how they can distort memories of people and events. Ezawa used photographs from art history textbooks for his sources of photography and with these photographs he reproduced them into his minimalistic and flattened style. This effect equalized all of the photographs so that they all read as similar images to the human eye instead of individual content.[17]
  • Lennon, Sontag, Beuys (2004): Animation portrays three politically active artists, Lennon, Sontag, and Beuys. This video sheds light on each artist stating their social and political platforms.[18]
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being (2005): Animation about the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy produced with old news footage and with the 1915 film Birth of a Nation.[15] The name of the film is taken from a book of the same title by Milan Kundera.
  • LYAM 3D (2008): A silent, colored, and four minute animation that gives new meaning to Alain Resnais′ 1960s French New Wave film, L'Année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad). Ezawa used many sources like the news media and popular cinema to create a video with his flattened style that only kept essential shapes.[19]
  • Choco Drink TV (2012): Sculpture of a mechanical television made from found objects such as wooden spoons and a Nesquik can, the images on the screen are of Kota's work. Channels can be changed by moving the wooden spoon.[20]
  • National Anthem (2018): Watercolor animation was installed at the 2019 Whitney Biennial. The animated art piece addressees police brutality and racism. The inspiration behind this piece is the event where the San Francisco 49ers football player, Colin Kaepernick, took a knee during the National Anthem in protest of police officers being violent towards black men who are unarmed.[21]

References
  1. "Kota Ezawa". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  2. "Past Exhibitions". San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB). Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  3. Selvin, Claire (2019-06-18). "Ryan Lee Gallery Now Represents Kota Ezawa". ARTnews. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  4. Fischer, Jack (2010-07-01). "Reality Twice Removed". Stanford Magazine. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  5. "Kota Ezawa: The Crime of Art, Interview". LUM Art Zine. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  6. "Kota Ezawa Biography". artnet. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  7. "Kota Ezawa". FAMSF Search the Collections. 2018-09-21. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  8. "Bio: Kota Ezawa". UC Berkeley Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  9. "Kota Ezawa". Artadia. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  10. "2006 SECA Art Award Sarah Cain, Kota Ezawa, Amy Franceschini, Mitzi Pederson". www.sfmoma.org. 2007. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  11. "Haines Gallery presents two solo exhibitions featuring new works by artists Binh Danh and Kota Ezawa". artdaily.cc. Retrieved 2019-10-28.
  12. "Kota Ezawa". California College of the Arts. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  13. "Offsite: Kota Ezawa". e-flux.com. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  14. Meacham, Steve (2008-03-21). "Southern Exposure". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Digital. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  15. "Kota Ezawa". The warhol. Archived from the original on 2016-08-23. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  16. "Kota Ezawa. Simpson Verdict. 2002". The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  17. Jana, Reena (2010). "Ezawa, Kota". Oxford Art Online, Grove Art Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T2088456. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  18. "Kota Ezawa: Re-Animating History". Williams College Museum of Art. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
  19. "LYAM 3D". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2019-10-27.
  20. "Choco Drink TV by Kota Ezawa". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
  21. "Partial View: Whitney Biennial 2019". whitney.org. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
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