Kazuki Koga

In his artistic practice, Kazuki Koga focuses on figures who never look at their creator, but are engrossed in their own comings and goings – at a picnic, in a rowing boat, in gardens, or in conversation. Each scene possesses a calm, peaceful quality and evokes a longing for a summer day in good company. Small-format studies are first created from memory and imagination; building on these, Koga then creates large-format canvases in his studio, where figures, light, and color merge into densely composed snapshots. He works with oil and acrylic paints, as well as occasionally lithography and risography, to translate perception into haptic and sensory experience.

Born in Tokyo, Koga studied printmaking before moving to Leipzig in 2019 to study painting and printmaking. Influential experiences under Christoph Ruckhäberle shape his compositions and subtle use of light, which imbue his works with atmosphere. The paintings are small moments that resonate in memory and are captured on canvas.

Work

CURRICULUM VITAE

career

Since 2020
Studied painting/graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig
with Christian Weihrauch (until 2021), Christoph Ruckhäberle (2021–2022), Franziska Holstein, Henriette Grahnert and Franz Jyrch (2022–2024), and Ivana de Vivanco (2024–2025)

2009 – 2013
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Painting, Musashino Art University, Tokyo

SOLO EXHIBITION

solo exhibition

2022
Paintings and Graphics by Kazuki Koga, Galerie Poiesis, Markkleeberg

GROUP EXHIBITION

Exhibitions

2025
Country Outing with Image to Sound, Galerie von Waldenburg, Chemnitz
Relatively Open, with Ivana de Vivanco's Class and Rothe's Class (AdbK Nuremberg), Tapetenwerk, Leipzig
Tour 2025, with Ivana de Vivanco's Class, HGB Leipzig

2024
Deframed: Surviving Purple, with Franziska Holstein's Class and Franz Jyrch, Kunstraum Porte, Leipzig
Tour 2024, with Franziska Holstein's Class and Henriette Grahnert, HGB Leipzig

2023
Painting and Graphics Exhibition by Marcel Happich and Kazuki Koga, Galerie Poiesis, Markkleeberg
No_Parents, duo exhibition with Seungjoo Lee, Salon Similde, Leipzig
Deframed, with Franziska Holstein's Class and Henriette Grahnert, Galerie ASPN, Leipzig
Tour 2023, with Franziska Holstein's Class and Henriette Grahnert, HGB Leipzig

2022
No_Parents, duo exhibition with Arina Heinze, Salon Similde, Leipzig
Transformer, with Ruckhäberle's Class, Essenheimer Kunstverein e. V., Essenheim
Labyrinth, with Ruckhäberle's Class, Kunsthalle Pfaffenhofen, Pfaffenhofen
Bodenseekreis Sponsorship Award, Galerie Bodenseekreis, Meersburg
Tour 2022, with Ruckhäberle's Class, HGB Leipzig

Stipendium

Scholarship

2021-2022
POLA Grants for Overseas Study by Young Artists, POLA Art Foundation