Susumu Kamijo
Susumu Kamijo (b. 1975) is a Japanese-born artist whose paintings and drawings move between figuration and abstraction through bold color, graphic form, and highly stylized imagery. Born in Nagano, Japan, Kamijo moved to the United States at sixteen and later earned his BFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Oregon in 2000 and his MFA from the University of Washington in 2002. He is best known for his ongoing depictions of poodles, a subject he began exploring in the mid-2010s and has since transformed into a distinctive visual language of flattened shapes, rhythmic contours, patterned surfaces, and unexpected color relationships. Rather than functioning simply as portraits, the dogs become vehicles through which Kamijo investigates composition, gesture, repetition, and the boundary between representation and abstraction. His approach is informed in part by his early study of Japanese calligraphy, particularly its emphasis on immediacy and decisive mark-making, as well as by the expressive possibilities of modern painting. Over time, Kamijo has expanded his imagery beyond the poodle while retaining the same playful tension between recognizable subjects and formal experimentation. His work has been exhibited internationally and has gained recognition for its combination of humor, elegance, and painterly economy. Kamijo lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Available Works
Comes A Time
2022
35 color silkscreen and 3 color woodblock on Somerset Velvet Newsprint Grey
37 1/2” x 30”
Edition of 60
Inquire
2019
Silkscreen 30 x 23.75 in.
Printers Proof
Signed by the artist
Framed in black wood with UV Plexiglas