Claudia Kogachi

Claudia Kogachi is a contemporary artist and painter. Born in 1995, Awaji-Shima, Japan, she lives in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Claudia's work leans into the personal, often depicting herself and those around her carrying out everyday leisure activities or exploring imaginary moments. These scenarios are used to delve into various interpersonal dynamics and emotional states, navigating the often tricky side to relationships. For Claudia, life is as equally malleable as fiction, and she bends the narrative truth of both towards each other until they meet. Her works are imaginary negotiations of real relationships and real feelings.

Family and friendship have long sat at the centre of this. Early paintings often showed herself and her mother as pairs of blue-skinned women squaring off in competitive, physical scenarios set in ordinary domestic spaces, with an undercurrent of friction between parent and child running beneath the action.