Fumiko Toda

Swimming Lessons

2018

Fumiko Toda’s paintings and prints have an obsessive quality of intricate detail and repetition of forms and patterns rendered in vibrant color. She often includes insects and other small creatures in her painted compositions, celebrating the natural world. These creatures have biographical significance, as Toda found observing wildlife to be a calming reprieve during her troubled childhood. The artist grew up in a rural community outside of Kyoto. She studied at the Sugii Art Institution in Mie and graduated from Kyoto University of Art and Design in 2000. In 2001, Toda moved to New York City, where she studied painting, figurative drawing, and printmaking at the National Academy of Fine Art.