Jhana Millers Gallery company logo
Jhana Millers Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Video
  • Viewing rooms
  • Contact
  • Store
Cart
0 items NZD$
Checkout

Item added to cart

View cart & checkout
Continue shopping
Menu

Claudia Kogachi, It Is What It Is

Past exhibition
26 March - 10 April 2021
  • Overview
  • Installation Views
  • Works
  • Related content
Overview
Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington, Claudia Kogachi

 

Claudia Kogachi’s work leans into the personal. The artist frequently depicts herself and members of her family carrying out everyday and leisure activities, using these to explore interpersonal dynamics and emotional states. Early paintings show her and her mother engaging in competitive pursuits, such as boxing and table tennis, which become metaphors for the combative dimension of the parent–child relationship. Lately, she has been creating pictorial tufted rugs, a practice she began during last year’s nationwide lockdown. Products of a slow and arduous making process, the works reflect a growing interest in questions of labour and precarity.

Kogachi’s first solo exhibition with us, It Is What It Is, centres on seven paintings (including two diptychs), which depict the artist and her partner being assaulted or impeded by a variety of creatures while they attempt to go about their business. Cockroaches interrupt a game of backgammon. Mosquitos prevent Kogachi from getting to sleep. Sandhoppers bug her while she sunbathes. The situations are real world, and all too relatable, but they also refer to feelings of frustration and angst in general. The critters become figures for the pervasive upset provoked by individual and community disputes alike. Anxieties, like mosquitos, can keep one up at night.

Claudia Kogachi was born in Awaji-shima, Japan, in 1995. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts. In 2019, she won the New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award. Recent exhibitions include: New Artists Show 2020, Artspace Aotearoa, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland; Obaachan during the lockdown, Wahiawā, Hawaiʻi, Te Tuhi, Tāmaki Makaurau; Uncle Gagi, play_station, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington; and Everyone Has a Horse Phase, Sanderson Contemporary, Tāmaki Makaurau (all 2020)

Download Press Release
Installation Views
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington, Claudia Kogachi
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington, Claudia Kogachi
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington, Claudia Kogachi
Claudia Kogachi 
It is what it is
Jhana Millers Gallery
Works
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, The one with the mosquitoes (diptych), 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, The one with the caterpillars, 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, The one with head lice, 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, The one with the cockroaches (diptych), 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, The one with the flies, 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, The one with the blue bottle jellyfish, 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, Roach Rug, 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, Mosquito rug, 2021
  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi
    Claudia Kogachi, The one with the sandhoppers, 2021
Related content
  • Claudia Kogachi, It Is What It Is Videos

    Claudia Kogachi, It Is What It Is

    Exhibition video Mar 26, 2021
    Read more

Related artist

  • Jhana Millers Art Gallery Wellington Claudia Kogachi Artist Self-portrait with Koi

    Claudia Kogachi

Back to exhibitions

Join our mailing list

Interests *

Signup
Jhana Millers
Whare Toi
Te Whanganui-
a-Tara
Address
Level 1, 85 Victoria Street, Te Aro
Te Whanganui-A-Tara, Wellington
 
Hours
Wednesday – Friday, 11am – 5pm
Saturday, 11am – 4pm
Directions
 
Contact
+64 4 471 1022
hi@jhanamillers.com
 
Social
Instagram
Facebook
Mailing List
 
Friends
Parrotdog Beer
Everyday Wines
The Exceptional Drop
Caughley
Yu Mei
Grafik
Profile Photos

 

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Send an email
Join the mailing list
View on Google Maps
Privacy Policy
Cookie Policy
© 2025
Site by Artlogic

This website uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. 

Accept