GO FOR KOGEI 2025

Shimizu Tokuko was born in Tokyo in 1948. Although not a professional artist, her interests cover a wide variety of subjects, including art, history, and various forms of culture. She developed her unique style through her energetic exploration of diverse techniques, such as oil painting, Japanese-style painting, and embroidery. The creation of the textile posters began in 2002 at the request of Shimizu Miho, an artist and daughter of Tokuko, who sought a poster for her exhibition in London, where she collaborated with Øyvind Renberg as the artist duo Danger Museum. This was part of Miho’s critical approach toward the center of the art world. Miho, a non-Westerner and non-male artist, dared to involve her non-artist mother and her embroidery, which was not widely accepted in the artistic context at that time, in the exhibition. What started as a one-time project evolved into a decade-long collaboration between mother and daughter, resulting in more than twenty works. Unlike bulk-printed posters, each one is a unique, handcrafted piece. Tokuko meticulously embroidered her imaginary world based on the basic information about the exhibition and the simple layout provided by Miho and Renberg. In 2022, Tokuko Shimizu: Textile Posters (Tokyo: Flick Studio, 2022), a catalog raisonné of her works, was published, and the commemorative exhibition Textile Posters (HAGISO, Tokyo, 2022) was held.

＿

Exhibition: Iwase Area

I-6｜Former Iwase Bank