Born in Kanagawa, Japan; based in Los Angeles and Japan.
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Kio Griffith is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans sound-based conceptual work and visual media, alongside curating and editing projects that bridge the U.S. and Japan. His recent work reflects not only his pan-national identity but also a pan-sensory experience. He refines the act of listening by immersing audiences in the auditory chaos of discordance, euphony and speech. By mining historical sociolinguistic references, he heightens awareness of temporal events past, present and future. Griffith reshapes ‘optiphonic’ paradigms into an immersive communal experience, breathing new life into what might otherwise be lost across generations. For his 2016 Aichi Triennale installation, colors index recordings of voices, languages and dialects from the Pan Pacific and beyond, with the cadence of whispers pervading humanity and nature, flickering across shades of thought and dimly discovered tonalities.
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Griffith has exhibited in the UK, Japan, Germany, Croatia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Turkey, Belgium and the U.S. He has performed, collaborated with or curated musicians, contemporary artists, dancers and designers in galleries, museums, clubs and unconventional spaces, both locally and internationally. His current roles include project director at TYPE (Tokyo+Yokohama Projects Exchange), curator and development director at ARTRA, associate editor at Fabrik and Artillery magazines, and art director at Angel City Jazz Festival; he has also designed more than 300 album jackets. Griffith was recently invited to exhibit at the 2016 Aichi Triennale and was selected for the 2017 Emerging Curators program at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions).