FALL-WINTER 2025-26 Featuring Artist 

IZUMI KATO

Photo Credit : Claire Dorn/ Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

Izumi Kato’s work often explores themes of abstraction and concreteness, infused with a hint of childlike wonder and mystery. His playful forms, organic shapes, and vivid yet dark color palette inspire the ANTEPRIMA FW25 collection, which merges the abstract with the wearable to create a unique, eye-catching line for ANTEPRIMA. This inspiration translates into FW25 through imaginative designs that blur the lines between art and fashion, offering a fresh, captivating aesthetic.

Izumi Kato hails from Shimane, Japan. Southwest of the island, it’s a spiritual prefecture, holding onto the Shinto, Buddhist and Animist beliefs of a past time. This spirituality shaped Kato’s childhood and is now a recognisable feature of his works; conjuring ethereal creatures that inhabit a space between reality and the spirit worlds. 


His paintings, sculptures, and drawings feature these interesting embryonic aliens that sit within a liminal background of colour, floating in a realm neither here nor there. These empty spaces give as much contextual information as any other part of his work. This is because Kato doesn’t like to add context, the images and sculptures speak for themselves; he doesn’t want to direct the viewer in any way. 

Photo Credit : Claire Dorn/ Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

Photo Credit : Claire Dorn/ Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin

Moreover, he doesn’t create art to ‘explain anything’, stating, “What the viewer thinks of the piece is more important than what I think”, in a 2021 interview. He wants his audience to purely interact with the visual, refraining from any outside distractions.


Yet, he clearly draws inspiration from all parts of his life. For example, the stitching in some works implies his avid fishing. Or his use of found materials, like the rocks which he selects and uses “as [he] finds them” rather than sculpting them after the fact. He then paints life onto these rocks, indicating the aforementioned Animism of his home region. A belief of innate spiritual essence within all things, objects included. 


“I work with my intuition when it comes to choosing materials. It is deep and fascinating to work with a particular material without really knowing why I was drawn to it.” 

Photo Credit : Claire Dorn/ Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin


Izumi Kato (b. 1969, Shimane, Japan) A contemporary Japanese artist known for his enigmatic, otherworldly figures that blend human and spiritual elements. Graduating from Musashino Art University in 1992, Kato initially pursued painting before expanding into sculpture, using materials like wood, stone, and soft vinyl. 


His works, often featuring childlike yet mystical beings with elongated limbs and haunting gazes, evoke a primal, universal connection to nature and the subconscious. Kato has exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale (2007), and his work is widely recognized for its raw, intuitive energy and deep cultural resonance.