“Mythologies” – The Transformative Faces of Kimiko Yoshida

The Kourd Gallery presents the first solo exhibition in Greece by Kimiko Yoshida, titled Mythologies – With the Face of Kimiko Yoshida, curated by Eleni Varopoulou. Following the gallery’s recent collaboration with the internationally acclaimed artist at Art Athina 2025, Yoshida returns to Athens to present a series of striking photographs and sculptures. The exhibition invites viewers on a journey through mythology, identity, and transformation, expressed through Yoshida’s distinctive visual language and unique artistic sensibility.

Curator Eleni Varopoulou notes:
“Mythical figures from the pantheon of myths and religions – such as Medusa, Athena, Hecate, Bacchus, the Minotaur, Venus, and Salome – as well as historical figures like Marie Antoinette and the Sun King, whose likenesses were once immortalized and mythologized by great sculptors, are reimagined in the contemporary self-portraits of the Japanese photographer and visual artist Kimiko Yoshida. Her aim is to forge her own personal mythology – hybrid, symbolically rich, enigmatic, and deeply experiential.”

The artist incorporates her face into the background color of each composition, photographing it as an integral part of the chromatic surface. A distancing from the self precedes this process, as Yoshida first transforms her face into a kind of mask through the use of traditional Japanese shironuri makeup, and then photographs it. With her face solemnly centered in the frame, she “updates” in a singular way the European tradition of early Italian and Flemish portraiture. Yoshida’s visual language is rooted in the idea of female performance, moving dynamically through territories of transformation and the uncanny.

Born in Tokyo, Yoshida first studied literature before turning to photography. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows across Europe, America, and Asia. She currently lives and works between Venice and Paris. She received the International Photography Award in the “Self-Portrait” category (2005) and the Prix de l’Ermitage from the Maison de la Photographie in Paris (2015). Her monographs include Tout ce qui n’est pas moi (Jean-Michel Ribettes, 2007) and Monographie Kimiko Yoshida (Actes Sud, 2010).

Her works are held in major museum collections, including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie and the Bibliothèque nationale de France (Paris), the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), The Israel Museum (Jerusalem), the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Fondation Valmont (Venice), the RuArts Foundation (Moscow), the Museo Soumaya (Mexico City), and the Power Station of Art (Shanghai), among many others worldwide. Yoshida previously visited Greece in 2009, participating in both the Athens Photo Festival and the Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art.

In 2026, Kimiko Yoshida will take part in the exhibition PENELOPE. Her Journeys, opening on May 5 at Palazzo Bonvicini in Venice, home of the Fondation Valmont. Subsequently, she will be the focus of the solo exhibition You Won’t Forget Her, also organized by the Fondation Valmont, which will open on June 1, 2026, at the Historical Archives Museum of Hydra.