Born in Tokyo in 1963, Kimiko Yoshida is a French-Japanese artist whose work explores the notions of identity, transformation, and self-erasure. Informed by a feminist perspective, her practice questions representations of femininity and cultural stereotypes.
Having settled in France in 1995, she studied at the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie in Arles, followed by Le Fresnoy – Studio National des Arts Contemporains. She has developed a photographic practice centred on self-portraiture, in which she transforms herself into historical, mythological, and cultural figures. Through monochromatic makeup, costumes, and coloured backgrounds, she blurs the boundaries between the body and its surroundings, turning self-erasure into a gesture of emancipation.
In dialogue with the history of art, from Titian to Andy Warhol, Kimiko Yoshida reinterprets the codes of representation to question the construction of identity and the mechanisms of the gaze. Her internationally acclaimed work is held in the collections of institutions including the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.