Tomoo Gokita is one of the most internationally influential contemporary artists in Japan. He began his artistic career as an illustrator and graphic designer, gaining international recognition particularly for his charcoal drawings. In 2000, after the publication of his art book "Lingerie Wrestling," his fame both domestically and internationally continued to grow.

Starting from 2005, he made the bold decision to abandon his successful career as a graphic designer in the Japanese music industry to pursue unrestricted freedom in the art of painting. His works have been exhibited in various countries including the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, and France. He was awarded the Gold Prize at the 80th New York Art Directors Club Annual Awards in 2001.

Since the beginning of his career, Gokita has drawn inspiration from vintage prints and photographs of American professional wrestling and Mexican erotic magazines. He has also found creative inspiration from movie stills, erotic works, and postcards. In recent years, he has gained prominence in the art world for his distinctive style characterized by bold black and white contrasts. Gokita incorporates a wide range of influences, including Cubism, Surrealism, Symbolism, Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, and Simulationism, as well as styles from the fields of commercial design, commercial photography, illustration, and layout. The result is captivating.


Gokita applies his monochromatic drawing techniques to acrylic paints and watercolors, blending characteristics of classical art with those of popular culture. He skillfully uses paint to create vibrant compositions. His artistic vocabulary is both contemporary and imbued with a profound sense of nostalgia, with qualities that remain fresh and relevant over time.


" I am presuming that to deform the human face might be a reaction against my practice of depicting them like crazy when I was young. Probably, I have become tired of depicting faces. Also, I have loved the masked wrestlers of the Mexican Lucha libre and those masks in Africa all this time, and a kind of transformational desire “to hide a face and to become a different character”, which can be symbolized in those masks, may have affected my work. I suppose there exists a certain ghoulish curiosity towards monsters and deformities, too. Regarding the drawings, as I mentioned earlier, they are more like practices and close to being simple reproductions, so drawing human faces as they are gives me a pleasant sensation."


Gokita's iconic grayscale compositions often utilize visual references from existing images, incorporating techniques and brushstrokes of Neo-Expressionism while distorting and injecting his own playful humor into the depicted figures. The faces of central characters are often obliterated, whether depicting wrestlers, celebrities, dancers, or newlyweds, shrouded in an ambiguous and eerie atmosphere. Viewers are left to search their memories for cultural icons or backgrounds to piece together the often elusive and sometimes incomprehensible narratives before them.


The artwork “Night and Day” showcases the artist's bold yet thought-provoking composition. The canvas's brilliant monochromatic gradient creates a stunning, almost luminous and velvety texture. The deep and rich tones of black, white, and gray evoke early black-and-white films and nostalgic photographs. The woman's limbs exhibit a uniform metallic sheen, with powerful and expressive body movements and clothing styles that epitomize the freedom of Western culture.


The woman's head is replaced by a large block of surreal organic matter, with hair shapes resembling textured thunderclouds. The portrait figure lacks language and emotion, with deconstructed and fragmented facial features interwoven with the black-and-white tones to create a rich sense of distortion, permeating a mysterious and eerie atmosphere. While seemingly simple in its black-and-white colors, the artwork exudes profound meaning and complexity.