b. 1975, Tochigi, Japan; lives and works Kyoto, Japan

Koki Tanaka is an artist whose multidisciplinary practice spans video, photography, performance, site-specific installation, and participatory projects. His work investigates the social and psychological dimensions of everyday life, revealing the complex relationships and hidden contexts embedded within ordinary actions. Beginning with experiments involving commonplace objects, Tanaka explored how subtle interventions could disrupt habitual ways of seeing and engaging with the world. Small gestures, phenomena and actions documented with pathos, humour and focussed attention.

Over the past decade, his practice has increasingly centred on collaborative actions, inviting participants to undertake unfamiliar tasks collectively. These temporary situations examine how individuals negotiate cooperation, communication, and decision-making, exposing the dynamics that emerge within newly formed groups. Through documentation and observation, Tanaka considers how human events, object behaviours and shared experiences produce meaning and shape social relationships. Extending these concerns beyond the gallery, he has also developed online discussion platforms that explore changing forms of interaction and exchange. Across diverse media, Tanaka's work questions the nature of participation and perception, and how these things are constructed and mediated.

Koki Tanaka’s recent solo exhibitions include Koki Tanaka, Kyoto Interchange, Kyoto, Japan (2023); Vulnerable Histories (A Road Movie), Art Sonje Center, Seoul, South Korea (2020); A Poem Written by 5 Poets at Once (First Attempt), Aoyama Meguro, Tokyo, Japan, and Precarious Tasks, Mirrored Garden/Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou, China (2019); and Vulnerable Histories (A Road Movie), Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland (2018). His work has also been presented in numerous major international group exhibitions, including Road movie: Art between Korea and Japan since 1945, National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea, Gyeongju, South Korea, and Set Up Situations, Marin MOCA, San Rafael, USA (2026); #WhereDoWeStand? – Art in Our Time, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan; Art between Japan and Korea since 1945, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan; Collection 2, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan; The Inoperative Community: Exhibition X Practice, UCI 1965–2025, UCI Art Gallery, Irvine, USA; and Bergen Assembly, Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway (2025); Highlights + Relations, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan, and Does The Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting The Museum’s Response to Contemporary Art After 65 Years, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Japan (2024); Before/After, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan (2023); Ghost2565, Ghost Foundation, Bangkok, Thailand; Where is the Planetary?, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany; and …and post-event study session, Theatre E9 Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan (2022); together for and against it, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; 34th Bienal de São Paulo, Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; Diriyah Biennale: Feeling the Stones, Diriyah Biennale Foundation, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Rule?, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo, Japan (2021); Anticorps [Antibodies], Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Vento [Wind], Fundação Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil; and How to Survive – art as survival strategy, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover, Germany (2020).

For further information about this artist please click here.

For Koki Tanaka's entry on Asia Art Archive's website please click here.