Aiko Tezuka is an artist whose practice engages with processes of deconstruction and reconstruction. Drawing on her background in painting, she probes the surfaces of textiles and images, as well as the narrative embedded within them. Exploring the layered relationships between time, memory, culture, identity, and global exchange, Tezuka works with historical and contemporary ready-made textiles, industrial fabrics, and self-designed garments, treating cloth as both image and object. Through the careful unravelling, loosening, and reconfiguring of individual threads, she intervenes in rather than replaces the image, revealing the material traces and cultural narratives woven into the fabric. Her works create a dialogue between past and present, foregrounding the continual transformation of objects and their meanings over time. By integrating fragments, motifs, and patterns from diverse geographies, her works forge connections across cultures, presenting textiles as vessels of transnational exchange and as records of the global networks of trade, migration, and industrial production.
Tezuka’s solo exhibitions took place at Rijksmuseum (Asian Pavilion) (Amsterdam, 2022), Kunsthalle Mannheim (2021), Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Kobe, 2015), Ayala Museum (Manila, 2015), Dortmunder Kunstverein (2014), and Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Berlin, 2013), among others. She took part in group exhibitions at Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2026, 2022 & 2019), TextielMuseum (Tilburg, 2026 & 2018), National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (2025), Yokohama Museum of Art (2025), National Museum of Art, (Osaka, 2025), National Museum of Art of Romania (Bucharest, 2024), Peranakan Museum (Singapore, 2024), Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Berlin, 2023), Fourth Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art (2022), Fukuoka Art Museum (2020), Johann Jacobs Museum (Zürich, 2018), Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg, 2018), and Turner Contemporary (Margate, 2017), among others.
Tezuka currently lives and works between Berlin, Germany and Tokyo, Japan.
