Statement
“What does it mean to capture truth?” Inspired by the etymology of the Japanese word shashin (“copying truth”), Kenta Cobayashi has continuously explored this fundamental question since childhood. The playful fusion of shooting and editing that defined his early experiences with Purikura sticker booths and the explosive digital brushstrokes of the 1990s software KID PIX serves as the genesis of his creative practice.
In Cobayashi’s work, truth is not a static realism but a fluid, constantly shifting structure formed through interactions among material, gesture, memory, noise, and collaboration. In his ongoing #smudge series, he transforms photographic pixels into streams of vibrant color using Photoshop’s smudge tool, foregrounding the act of editing itself as an expressive gesture. Similarly, Tokyo Débris dismantles and reconstructs fragmented urban landscapes of Tokyo, while Broken Mirrors merges chaotic reflections of shattered mirrors with CG materials. Cobayashi fluidly navigates diverse mediums, continually interrogating the boundaries between visual imagery and bodily gestures.
Across photography, CGI, sculpture, video, installation, performance, and fashion, Cobayashi stages dynamic loops between the "body that creates" and the "body that observes," exploring how images can regenerate new life after their meanings have collapsed.
CV
Born 1992, Kanagawa, JP | Based in Tokyo / Shonan
— Solo Exhibitions (selected)
2022 “EDGE” agnès b. galerie boutique, Tokyo, JP
“THE PAST EXISTS” Mitsukoshi Contemporary Gallery, Tokyo, JP
“Tokyo Débris” WAITINGROOM, Tokyo, JP
2021 “#smudge” ANB Tokyo, Tokyo, JP
2017 “Insectautomobilogy / What is an Aesthetic?” G/P Gallery, Tokyo, JP
2016 “#photo” G/P gallery, Tokyo, JP
— Group Exhibitions (selected)
2025 “AI / POST PHOTO” Art Golden Gai, Tokyo, JP
2024 “HYPER_IMAGE_SCAPE” Ulsan Art Museum, Ulsan, KR
2023 “Photo2021: The Truth” Centre for Contemporary Photography, Melbourne, AU
2022 “COMING OF AGE” Foundation Louis Vuitton, Paris, FR
2021 Unseen Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL
2019 Arte Fiera, Bologna, IT
2018 “BRAVE NEW WORLD” Seoul Photo Festival, Seoul, KR
Breda Photo Festival, Breda, NL
Hello World — For the Post‑Human Age, Art Tower Mito, JP
2017 Guangzhou Image Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, CN
FORMAT International Photography Festival, Derby, UK
2016 “GIVE ME YESTERDAY” Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Milan, IT
2015 Photo London, Somerset House, London, UK
Jimei×Arles International Photo Festival, Xiamen, CN
— Commissions / Collaborations (selected)
2022 Adidas “Kenta Cobayashi × adidas SPORTSWEAR”, JP
2020 Dunhill SS‑2020 campaign (Dir. Mark Weston), London, UK
2019 Louis Vuitton Men FW‑2019 campaign (Dir. Virgil Abloh), Paris, FR
— Performances (as “#VISUALINERTIA” & others)
2022 Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris
2020 Little Big Man Gallery, LA
2017 Unseen Amsterdam
2016 Tate Modern, London
— Publications / Artist Books (selected)
2022 “untitled sky” (self-published); “The Past Exists” (Newfave)
2020 “Everything_2” (Newfave); “BROKEN MIRRORS” (artbeat publishers)
2016 “Everything_1” (Newfave) + 15 self‑published zines 2014–22
— Collections
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, US
Amana Collection; Takahashi Collection, Tokyo, JP
Tokyo Before/After, The Japan Foundation, JP
— Awards
2015 Tokyo Frontline Photo Award — Grand Prize
Biography
Kenta Cobayashi (b. 1992) is an artist based in Tokyo and Kanagawa. Growing up with a Macintosh at home in the 1990s, he defines himself as a "GUI-native," shaped by early experiences with digital interfaces such as Purikura sticker booths and the software KID PIX. These formative encounters sparked his ongoing inquiry into photography and digital editing, continually asking, “What does it mean to capture truth?”
His representative series, #smudge, employs Photoshop’s smudge tool to stretch photographic pixels, foregrounding the act of editing itself as a visual expression. He extends this method across diverse media, including CGI, sculpture, video, and installation, exploring the fluidity of urban imagery and memory within digital environments.
Cobayashi spent his early twenties in an artist community in Shibuya, Tokyo, and from his late twenties onward has been active within a community based in Shonan, Kanagawa. His career began through the creation and circulation of zines, emphasizing photography not merely as an act of capturing images, but as one of "editing, exchanging, and circulating." Quietly embedded in this practice is the memory of copier ink and the physical gestures of folding and stapling paper.
Currently, Cobayashi engages in numerous collaborations across generations and disciplines, exploring ways to bridge the sensibilities and attitudes of GUI-native and emerging AI-native generations.
“Tokyo Débris” WAITINGROOM, Tokyo (2022)
Tokyo Débris is a series based on the urban landscape of Tokyo in the aftermath of the Olympics. Expanding on the technique developed in #smudge—stretching and distorting photographic pixels—this project reconstructs fragmented city memories and digital debris through CGI collages and sculptural installations.
The exhibition space featured a floor-covering photo-vinyl mural, star-shaped acrylic reliefs positioned at varying angles, NFT video loops, and HDR-lit CGI stills from the Broken Mirror series. Together, these elements reflect and refract both physical materials and virtual imagery, generating an immersive visual experience. Viewers are invited to drift through the contradictions and fragmented memories embedded within the city's surface.
“#smudge” ANB Tokyo, Tokyo (2021)
“How does stretching pixel color information alter the meaning of a photograph?”—The #smudge series explores this central question, thematizing the act of editing itself through the use of Photoshop’s smudge tool. Originating in a 2014 zine project, the series has since expanded across diverse media including murals, video, lenticular prints, and metal relief sculptures.
Notable works include a massive 12-meter printed mural, the metal relief piece Relief: Brushstrokes featuring imagery printed on folded metal plates, the video piece #video visualizing mouse movements, and performances such as Sound & Vision and #VISUALINERTIA, which translate editing gestures into audiovisual experiences. Integrating visual, tactile, and auditory sensations through varied techniques, #smudge creates an immersive spatial environment that envelops viewers in fluid waves of color.
“Hello World—For the Post-Human Age” ART TOWER MITO, Mito ( 2018)
What role can art play in a post-human era, when information technologies fundamentally reshape human perception and bodily experience? Drawing upon Marshall McLuhan’s media theories, Kenta Cobayashi addressed this question from the perspective of a digital-native generation in the group exhibition alongside artists such as Hito Steyerl, Cécile B. Evans, and exonemo.
Cobayashi presented diverse works including the #smudge series—stretching digital images into fluid streams of color—the video-based editing visualization #video, and the performance Sound & Vision, in which printer sounds were repurposed as auditory textures. These pieces visualized the friction and resonance between the body and technology, creating immersive environments that challenged viewers’ perception.
This body of work is deeply rooted in Cobayashi’s early digital practice, exemplified by his blog and photobook series titled Everything, which expressed nostalgia for the chaotic aesthetic of early internet culture. The title itself draws inspiration from the fundamental question posed by the science-fiction classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which Cobayashi cherished during his high school years: “What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?” Thus, the exhibition also represented an attempt to link everyday digital experiences to broader, more profound, and science-fictional inquiries.
