About Us

Knots for the Arts is a collective of contemporary art professionals formed in 2022 with the aim of "connecting art practices." *A group that emphasizes collective creativity.
The project is led by artist Kim Insook, curator Nishida Shoko, and gallerist Sugita Momo, who invite various guests. The name "Knots," which means "knot" in Japanese, embodies their desire to connect people through art.

By bringing together art professionals and promoting communication-based exchanges that connect art and society, we aim to create an arts and culture platform that is open to the diverse segments of society. To date, we have participated in the "International Conference Connecting Everyone Through Culture" (2022), hosted "Screening Dialogue in Asia" (2024) with funding from the Tokyo Arts Council, and posted dialogues on art, education, community, and more on YouTube.
This year, we will be planning, managing, and directing the Knots Arts Festival, which will be held at Santana Gakuen, with the theme of "building relationships."

お問い合わせ

Meet the Team

金仁淑 / KIM Insook

Artist

Born in Osaka, after graduating from the Photography Department of the Visual Arts College Osaka evening school, he moved to South Korea in 2003 to study at the Photography and Film Course of the Western Painting Department at the Graduate School of Art at Hansung University, and since 2018 has been based in Tokyo and Seoul.
He has stayed and produced works at artist-in-residencies run by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Korea) and the city of Düsseldorf (Germany), and has held numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Japan and overseas. His works are housed in the collections of museums such as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Korea), Seoul Museum of Art (Korea), Gwangju Museum of Art (Korea), Gyeonggi Provincial Museum of Art (Korea), and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.

Since 2001, he has been working on numerous art projects with immigrants and members of local communities, presenting installations as a platform to share the process. He has created works while building relationships with project participants in countries such as Korea, Japan, Germany, and China. Since 2022, he has served as director of art projects with Santana Academy, and created Eye to Eye, a 10-channel video installation that brings Santana Academy and viewers together.

This work won the 1st Special Award in the Commission Project at the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2023 (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum), the 48th Kimura Ihei Photography Award in 2024, and the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's Art Encouragement Prize for New Artists (Art Category B) sponsored by the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2025.
In the exhibition "My Untranslatable Words," held at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2024, along with "Eye to Eye," he presented a new video work, "Behind the Door," which visited a student who had returned to Brazil, and received high praise.
Our activities with Santana Gakuen have been featured in newspapers, NHK International News, NHK World Direct Talk and other media, helping many people to learn about the existence of immigrants from abroad and the art project with Santana Gakuen.
Kim In-sook will be creating a work capturing the festival and showcasing it at the Mori Art Museum's "Roppongi Crossing" exhibition, which opens on December 6th.

西田祥子 / Shoko NISHIDA

Curator

Born in Saga Prefecture, she graduated from Kyoto University's Faculty of Letters, majoring in Aesthetics and Art History. From 2010 to 2018, she worked at Benesse Art Site Naoshima, where she curated and managed art projects and managed the collection. After going independent, she is currently the program director at Kyoto Art Center, and is involved in several art collectives, including Art Manager Lab, with the aim of creating a society where everyone involved with art can live a fulfilling life. Her recent major projects include the "Public Family" exhibition (2025, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum), "Art for Field Building in Bakuroyokoyama" (2021, MIDORI.so), and "Lecture: Considering Art and Harassment" (2020-2021, online lecture).

杉田モモ / Momo SUGITA

Gallerist

Born in Tokyo. After graduating from the Department of Mass Communication, Faculty of Sociology, Toyo University in 2005, she transferred to Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, USA, where she majored in art management. After graduating in 2009, she interned for a year at Newman Popiashvili Gallery (now Marissa Newman Project) in New York, before returning to Japan and working as director at Gallery Momo (Tokyo), which was founded in 2003 by her father, a collector.
In addition to planning and managing exhibitions for the artists represented at the company, she also supports projects in Japan by international artists as a project coordinator. Since 2023, she has served as a project manager at Processart Inc., where she mainly coordinates the overseas projects of fog sculptor Fujiko Nakaya.