wataboku

wataboku is a Japanese artist whose practice grew out of social media and now extends to painting and exhibition. At the centre of the work is SAI, a girl in school uniform who recurs across hundreds of images less as a character than as an icon: a face through which states of mind — defiance, fatigue, tenderness, unease — are registered in the eyes, the angle of a gaze, the smallest shift of expression.

Beginning in digital drawing, wataboku has in recent years turned increasingly to acrylic on canvas and to themes of scars, pain and the invisible pressures that shape contemporary life. A first monograph, Kan 0, was published by Pony Canyon in 2016; a second, VSI, followed from PIE International in 2022. Solo exhibitions have been held across Japan and in several cities in Asia. Collaborations include the Yohji Yamamoto Spring/Summer 2022 collection, the music video for Ryokuoushoku Shakai's “Mela!”, artwork for the singer tuki., and the cover art for Tow Ubukata's novel Twelve Suicidal Children.

wataboku's work is presented in Europe by Tokiol and will be shown at Art Market Budapest in October 2026.

Selected exhibitions

2026 Art Market Budapest, Budapest (with Tokiol)
2023 Solo exhibition, PARCO MUSEUM TOKYO, Tokyo
2022 Command City, Anicoremix Gallery, Tokyo
2021 WHO, SORTone Gallery, Tokyo
2016 Solo exhibition, ROCKET, Tokyo

Publications

VSI, PIE International, 2022
Kan 0, Pony Canyon, 2016