Junko Chodos:
Born 1939 in Tokyo, Japan
Resides and works in Los Angeles, California, USA
Instagram account:
junkochodosWebsite：mysteryofart.com, secretofart.com, junkochodos.net, centripetalart.com
I am a transnational contemporary artist. I was born, raised and educated in Japan. I was five years old when Hiroshima was bombed and I lived in Japan through a period of traumatic fear, destruction and then rebuilding. I graduated from Waseda University with a degree in the History and Philosophy of Art. In my late 20s, I moved to the United States, married and became a US Citizen. I have lived and worked in the United States since 1968. My practice spans a wide range of media—including pencil, pen, collage, acrylic, and mixed media—as I explore themes of consciousness, trauma, and transformation.
I describe myself as a Centripetal Artist, drawing on the physics concept of centripetal force to express my belief that true art moves from the soul, or center, of the artist to the soul of the viewer. For me, the creative process is an inward journey toward truth and divine presence. Centripetal Art transcends barriers of ethnicity, nationality, religion, and gender, and serves as a medium for healing and inner awakening.
My spirituality is deeply rooted in finding beauty and meaning within the broken, discarded, and overlooked elements of the world. I am drawn to materials that many consider grotesque or disturbing — old wood, roots, bones, and broken machinery — because I see in them a deeper significance. This approach reflects my belief in a spiritual worldview that embraces decay and destruction but is open to the ever-present possibility of trans- formation and rebirth. Light can emanate from darkness, and there are unseen threads connecting life, death, and renewal. Through these materials, I explore spirituality as an intimate dialogue between the material and the transcendent, finding sacredness in what others might dismiss.
Over the course of my career, I’ve held solo exhibitions at major institutions including the Tokyo Central Museum and the Long Beach Museum of Art, and have received more than forty awards. In 2001, a hardcover book titled Metamorphoses: The Transformative Vision of Junko Chodos was published collaboratively by Giotto Multimedia and the Long Beach Museum of Art. The book received First Prize in the Art category at the 2002 Independent Publisher Book Awards and was praised for its depth, design, and documentation of my artistic journey.
A major retrospective, The Breath of Consciousness (2005), focused on my ongoing engagement with mortality and spiritual perception. In 2010, I published Why on Earth Does God Have to Paint?, a philosophical reflection on art as a spiritual act. My 2018 autobiography, Out of the Mansion of Motoyasu, weaves my life story with Japan’s late 19th-century cultural transformation, creating a personal mythology rooted in spirituality and growth. Through both my art and writing, I strive to create spaces where rupture becomes renewal, and where the sacred can be seen and felt.
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Selected Solo Exhibitions:
2018: Can We Hear our Own Voice? at the Cole Art Center/Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas;
2012: FATHOM- The first Three Acts Restaged (North Park Theater, San Diego)
2010-2011: UCLA - Dortort Gallery, Solo Exhibit coordinated with "Art and Religion" Symposium -- Concerning Art and Religion series.
2006: North Park Theater, San Diego, California. FATHOM: The Body as Universe. Stage art for dance production: 40 panels grouped i
into seven scenes, each group twelve feet high by 35 feet wide.
2005: Fresno Art Museum, Junko Chodos: Translucent Meditations, one-person show given as part of Council of 100 Distinguished Woman
Artist of the Year award.
2005: Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, St. Louis, Missouri: The Breath of Consciousness.
2004: Exhibit of Cry of Ecstasy at Panavision
2003: Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California, Requiem for an Executed Bird, at the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library
2002: Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art: A Passionate Witness
2001: Long Beach Museum of Art, Metamorphoses: The Transformative Vision of Junko Chodos
1995: Pacific Asia Museum (Foyer Gallery), Pasadena, California In the Forest of Amida Buddha
1992: L.A. Artcore Annex, Art, Mysticism and Psychology, Curated by Rafael Chodos. Los Angeles, California. Space Gallery, Painting,
Los Angeles, California
1988: Frank Bustamante Gallery, New York, New York: Recent Works on Paper.
1984: Fujii Garo Art Salon, Tokyo, Japan The Universe Moves and Humans Dance: Junko Chodos One-Person Show
1979: Gallery Nakatsumi, Osaka, Japan, Staring at Inner Light: One-Person Show
1979: Tokyo Central Museum, Tokyo, Japan Staring at Inner Light; One-Person Show
1973: Alibrandi Bottega of Art, Boston, Massachusetts First One-Person Show
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Selected Public Collections:
2009: Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, “Mass Killing, No. 1, This Must Never Happen Again”
2008: Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, “Individuation Journal, No. 7, The Fall of Man”
2005: Fresno Art Museum, “Giant Burls, No. 5”
1998: Long Beach Museum of Art, “Celestial Curtain, No. 1”
1995: Pacific Asia Museum, “Dead Flower Series, No. 8”
1994: Long Beach Museum of Art, “Interplanetary Icon, No. 9”
1991: Long Beach Museum of Art, “Burls Series, No. 18”
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Selected Lectures/Public Speaking Engagements:
2018: Stephen F. Austin State University, at opening of one-person exhibit, “What Art Can Do”
2014: GETTY Museum, Symposium on “Art and Faiths”.
2011: Symposium at UCLA, sponsored by Center for the Study of Religion and Center for Jewish Studies, ART and RELIGION: “Image and
Revelation in the Twenty-firs Century”
2009: Symposium at Barnard College, New York City, sponsored by Society for Arts, Religion, and Contemporary Culture, “The Impact of
Technology on My Art and Spirituality”
2006: Symposium at Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California:
“American Originals: A Lifetime of Art”; panel discussion as award-winner of Distinguished Woman Artist of the Year.
2005: 60-minute Auditorium Lectures at Fresno Art Museum, Fresno, California, “Artistic Experience as Religious Experience” &
“Spiritual Refugee”
2005: Radio Interview KWMU—FM (Local NPR Station, St. Louis) with Revd. Terrence Dempsey, Director, Museum of Contemporary Religious
Art. Interviewer: Stephen Potter.
2004: Lecture “Artistic Experience as Religious Experience”, at Claremont Graduate University conference, "Visions and Dreams"
2004: Discussion on Art and Spirituality at Graduate Theological Union, Symposium jointly sponsored by GTU and the Society for the Arts,
Religion, and Contemporary Culture, on Art and Spirituality, Berkeley, California
2003: Lecture at Graduate Theological Union, "Spirituality and the Process of Creating Art", Berkeley, California
2002: Lecture, Claremont Graduate University, as part of the conference, THE EMPIRE OF TRANSLATION, "Following the Pillar of Fire: From
Loss of Language to Visual Expression", Lecture, Naropa University (Boulder, Colorado) – Summer Writing Workshop, “Spiritual
Refugee”.
2001: Lecture, Getty Museum, as part of the conference on EXILE, "Following the Pillar of Fire: From Loss of Language to Artistic Expression"
1996: Lecture and slide show, Long Beach Museum of Art, "Transcending Ethnicity: The Creative Process"
1992: Lecture and slide show, Association for Transpersonal Psychology, Annual Conference, Asilomar, California, "Transcending Suffering
Through the Artistic Process"
1980: Lecture at the Japanese American Culture and Community Center, Los Angeles, California, “On my Root Series” (in Japanese).
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