Asian Artists to Watch 2024: Kei Imazu

Each year, we identify the Asian artists on the rise, shining a light on the exciting and provocative works enriching the region’s artistic and cultural landscape. Indonesia-based artist Kei Imazu shares her story.

Kei Imazu is a dynamic painter, born in Yamaguchi, Japan, and living in Bandung, Indonesia. Her artistic senses allow her to blend the past and present through meticulous hand-painted canvases. Imazu depicts a surreal world in which time is an ever-changing element, while simultaneously merging baroque artistry with digital-age discoveries.

Her last solo exhibition, Unearth, displayed at ROH Projects Jakarta, delves into the myth of Hainuwele, the “Coconut Girl” from Seram Island folklore. Paintings, installations and a giant skull sculpture expressed a narrative centred around a woman who produced valuables from her body and was ultimately buried alive
by a paranoid community. Imazu’s artworks depict Hainuwele’s story and its aftermath, where her dismembered body grows into life-sustaining tubers, intertwining beauty with a sense of foreboding.

She often portrays landscapes in metamorphosis states, inviting viewers into esoteric contemplation. Imazu’s art, a cryptic commentary on the human condition, has graced international venues such as the Museum Haus Kasuya and the Mori Art Museum. This year, as part of Art Basel Hong Kong’s citywide campaign her visionary pieces are transforming Hong Kong’s cityscape. 

See our Art Basel Hong Kong coverage here.