Tam Ochiai

Tam Ochiai was born in Yokohama, Kanagawa in 1967. He moved to the United States in 1990 after graduating from Wako University, and completed his M.A in New York University in 1993. He currently lives and works in New York.

His major exhibitions include, “Criterium 16: Tam Ochiai ‘Shopping bags’” (Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan, 1995); “MOT Annual: Fiction? Painting in the Age of the Virtual” (Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, 2002), “Flashback” (Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, 2005); “The Door into Summer –The Age of Micropop” (Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan, 2006); “Winter Garden: The Exploration of the Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art” (Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo [touring Japanisches Kulturinstitut, Cologne, 2009, and numerous other venues]; “spies are only revealed when they get caught” (WATARIUM Museum, Tokyo, Japan, 2010); and “Yokohama Triennale 2011: Our Magic Hour” (Yokohama Museum of Art, NYK Waterfront Warehouse [BankART Studio NYK], Kanagawa, Japan). For the 2016 exhibition re wild(e) (ARATANIURANO, Tokyo), Ochiai engaged in new attempts such as his work with film director Hiroyuki Oki in which the two collaborate in the production of drawings, video, and onsite three-dimensional works. The “Ashtray Sculptures” presented at this exhibition were also featured in his 2017 solo show Tarragon, Like a Cat’s Belly at Team Gallery in New York, attracting much attention.

Ochiai’s works are housed in the collections of The National Museum of Art, Osaka, The Japan Foundation, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Deutsche Bank, and the Takahashi Collection.

Solo Exhibitions

2025 “Shopping Bags” Hans Goodrich, Chicago, IL

2021 “Tapetum Lucidum” GINZA MAISON HERMÈS Le Forum, Tokyo, Japan

2020 “M.O.” Soft Opening, London, UK

2019 “Chopin, Op. 97” Tetsuo's Garage, Nikko, Tochigi, Japan

“Itinerary, non?” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2017 “Tarragon, Like a Cat’s Belly” Team Gallery, New York, NY

2015 “Everyone Has Two Places” Team gallery, New York, NY

2012 “Meadow Traveler, Madeleine Severin” Tomio Koyama Gallery Kyoto, Japan

2010 “spies are only revealed when they get caught” WATARIUM Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2008 “Tiam O'Shian IV” Team Gallery, New York, NY

2007 “scratching, blood or cat carving” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2006 “occhialli & libreli” Arndt & Partner Zurich, Switzerland

2005 Galerie Lisa Ruyter, Vienna, Austria

“tail (exercises in punctuation)” Team Gallery, New York, NY

2004 Galeria Francesca Kaufmann, Milano, Italy

“mystery of tail” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

“maroon drawing” Aoi Gallery, Osaka, Japan

2001 “Installation No.8” Dorothee De Pauw Gallery, Brussels, Belgium

“august” Team Gallery, New York, NY

“foreskir” Ardnt and Partner, Berlin, Germany

2000 “inavgurazione” Galleria Francesca Kaufmann, Milano, Italy

Team Gallery, New York, NY

1999 “Madeleine” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1997 Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

Team Gallery, New York, NY

1996 Jose Freire Fine Art, New York, NY

1995 Contemporary Art Gallery, Art Tower Mito, Ibaragi, Japan

1993 Jose Freire Fine Art, Project Room, New York, NY

Washington 80 Galleries, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2025 “Zureta” The Pawnbroker’s Museum, Nikko, Tochigi, Japan

“Diane A” Arcadia Missa, London, UK

“MOT Collection 30th Anniversary Exhibit Nine Profiles: 1935→2025” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan

2024 “Carla Accardi and Tam Ochiai” Meredith Rosen Gallery, NY

2023 "Cat’s Narrow Road” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan

2022 "Wait, where did I leave my keys?” DREI, Cologne, Germany

2020 “Collection: The Aesthetics of Contemporary Japan” National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

2019 "Weavers of Worlds - A Century of Flux in Japanese Modern / Contemporary Art" Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan

2018 “Clues for Art Appreciation” Fukuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Japan

“Collection 2: The 1980s Zeitgeist as a Point of Departure” The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

“troedsson villa mountain school” In and around Troedsson Villa, Nikko, Japan

“The Myriad Forms of Visual Art: 196 Works with 19 Themes” The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

“Takahashi Collection Face and Abstraction” Kiyoharu Art Colony, Yamanashi, Japan

2017 “Satellite TV” Tetsuo's Garage, Tochigi, Japan

“Group exhibition” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2016 “Troedsson Villa Mountain School” Troedsson Villa, Tochigi, Japan

“Troedsson Villa Mountain School” Statements, Tokyo, Japan

“On Empathy” BRIDGET DONAHUE, New York, NY

“Tam Ochiai x Hiroyuki Oki "re wild(e)” ARATANIURANO, Tokyo, Japan

2015 “For Troedsson Villa” Troedsson Villa, Tochigi, Japan

2014 “MOT Collection Part1: Postwar Art in Close-up” The Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan

“Group exhibition by Tomio Koyama Gallery” TOLOT/heuristic SHINONOME, Tokyo, Japan

“Twentieth Anniversary Special MOT Collection Chronicle 1995” Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan

2013 “Collection” The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan

“Wonderful My Art” Kawaguchiko Museum of Art, Yamanashi, Japan

“Takahashi Collection, Mindfulness!” Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima, Japan [touring Sapporo Art Museum, Hokkaido, Japan]

2012 “Fuyu no Tabi” Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago, IL

“for missing O 'KYTO'” TKG Editions Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

2011 “MOT Collection/ Silent narrator: on plural stories" Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Collection Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

“Yokohama Triennale 2011: Our Magic Hour" Yokohama Museum of Art, NYK Waterfront Warehouse (BankART Studio NYK), Kanagawa, Japan

2009 “Winter Garden: The Exploration of the Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art” curated by Midori Matsui, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo [touring Japanisches Kulturinstitut, Cologne, 2009/ The Japan Foundation, Tronto, 2010/ Galeri'a Arnold Belkin, Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, 2011]

2007 “The Door into Summer” ART TOWER MITO, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan

2006 “10th Anniversary” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2005 “Flashback” Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

“25 Years Deutsche Bank Collection” Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin, Germany

“Honeymoon with Romeo” Groeflin Maag Galerie, Basel, Switzerland

“Works on Paper” Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany

2004 “Yoshitomo Nara, Tam Ochiai, Hiroshi Sugito: New Prints” Space Force, Tokyo, Japan

“New Generation Heavenly Creatures” Galerie Thaddaeus Ropas, Salzburg, Austria

“The Rose Garden Without Thorns” Galerie Lisa Ruyter, Vienna, Austria

“Repulsion” Illinois State University, Normal, IL

2003 “Opening Exhibition” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

“Japan: Rising” Palm Beach ICA, Miami, FL

“Pop Jack” Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO

2002 “Fiction? Painting in the Age of the Virtual” Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

2001 “The Place of Happiness” Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

“Jap in a box” Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK

“E/Motion Studies” Queens Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA

“Superimposition” Caren Golden Fine Art, New York, NY, USA

2000 “Dark mirrors from Japan” De Appel, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan

“Portrait” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

“Tectonic” La Panaderia, Mexico City, Mexico

“The Nocturnal Dream Show” Pat Hearn Gallery, New York, NY

Lidmar Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden

1999 “Tam Ochiai/ Steven Parrino” Team Gallery, New York, NY

“VOCA '99” The Ueno Royal Museum, Tokyo, Japan

“The Bastard Kids of Drella, Part 9” Le Consortium, Dijon, France

“Soap” Gallery Zero, Osaka, Japan

“On Paper” Stalke Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark

“Spiral TV” Spiral Garden, Tokyo, Japan

1998 “Remix” Team Gallery, New York, NY

“Sassy Nugetts” A-1 Artspace, Knoxville, TN

1997 “Gallery Artists” Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

1996 “Benefit” White Colums, New York, NY

1995 “M & M” Jose Freire Fine Art, New York, NY

1994 “For Collections” New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, NJ

Public Collections

Deutsche Bank

The Japan Foundation

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo

The National Museum of Art, Osaka

Ryutaro Takahashi Collection