Biography

Painter/sculptor. Born in Fukuoka City, and spent his childhood in Kitakyushu City. Studied Japanese-style painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, but soon shifted to oil painting. Via his first visit to Europe in 1965, he began to hold solo exhibitions in Tokyo from the following year, while also gaining popularity for his fantastic style of painting. At the end the 1970s, after he moved to Kanagawa Prefecture, he began to simultaneously study Rudolf Steiner’s (1861-1925) ideas and Eastern Zen. In 1980, which was around the time of his departure to Germany, he gradually transformed his style, and then attained an abstract painting form characterized by powerful brushstrokes and splashes. Aside from his studio in Germany, he opened a studio in Saitama Prefecture in 1993. He continued his artistic activities while travelling between the two countries up until his later years. In 2022–23, his first retrospective was held in the three places associated with Yokoo: Kitakyushu, Kanagawa, and Saitama.