Yuree Kensaku was born in 1979 in Bangkok, where she lives and works. A Thai-Japanese artist, she grew up in Thailand. From her Japanese father, she inherited a sense of discipline. Meanwhile, she grew up immersed in anime and manga. A graduate of the Department of Fine Arts at Bangkok University, she has developed a multidisciplinary practice. It spans painting, street art, design, animation, music, performance and installation.

Her first solo exhibition came right after graduation, through the Brand New 2003 project. Ek-Anong Phanachet, director of 100 Tonson Gallery, discovered her work there. She then invited her to exhibit. The gallery has supported her ever since, in Thailand and internationally.

An Instantly Recognizable World

Her early works combined the flat forms of Asian animation with the thick texture of European oil paint. Her world is recognizable at first glance: candy-bright colors, cute characters, hybrid creatures. As in anime, however, these appealing images conceal dark stories. Cuteness allows her to express pain and lighten its weight. Her themes thus range from the personal to the political, from the environmental to the spiritual. Symbols, song titles and fragments of myths and legends come together like a collage. They thus form new narratives.

Yuree Kensaku is curious about everything, from tardigrades to the moral questions raised by cloning pets. She also draws on the places she passes through. At the 2018 Thailand Biennale in Krabi, she built a boat painted with stories from legends of the southern islands. Its figurehead is a nāga’s head. In 2020, she spent two months in residence at Centre Intermondes in La Rochelle. There she created Bleu Blanc Rouge, on the links between France and Thailand. She then met Enrico Navarra in Le Muy. She returned in 2023 for a residency at Villa Navarra. There she made two paintings on finance for Asia NOW, at the Monnaie de Paris.

An International Career

Her international career includes The Adventure of Momotaro Girl at the Yokohama Museum of Art (2007). Then came the Moscow Biennale for Young Art (2014) and Atmosfear at 100 Tonson Gallery (2016–2017). She took part in the Bangkok Art Biennale (2020–2021), then the Hawai‘i Triennial and the Honolulu Museum of Art (2022). Her works are held by the Mori Art Museum, the Yokohama Museum of Art and the Singapore Art Museum. They are also in the MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum and the Bank of Singapore collections.

Obstacles have become a common thread in the work of Yuree Kensaku. In The Mansion of Plates (JWD Art Space, 2024–2025), life moves forward like a video game. Every stage brings a new “boss”: sometimes we win, sometimes we start again. This cycle of falling and rebirth is indeed close to Buddhist thought.

Le Mont Never-Rest in Paris

From October 2025 to January 2026, Galerie 75 Faubourg presented Le Mont Never-Rest, with Galerie Enrico Navarra. It was also her first solo exhibition in France. Drawing on her own experience of illness, the series addresses health and recovery. Great French mountains stand for the challenges to be overcome. The artist portrays herself as a goldfish, a scorpion, a boxer, a bodybuilder and the serpent on the staff of Asclepius.