Shigeko Kubota (1937–2015) was an avant-garde artist whose works spanned video, sculpture, performance, and text, as a pioneer of video art. Born in Niigata prefecture, Japan, Kubota graduated from the Tokyo University School of Education in 1960 with a degree in sculpture. She started performing and exhibited at the Japanese experimental art scene in early 1960s. In 1964, she was deeply inspired by Nam June Paik’s performance at Sogetsu Art Center, Tokyo and was highly absorbed in Fluxus. In the same year, Kubota moved to New York City at the invitation of Fluxus impresario George Maciunas.

Kubota became a fixture of Fluxus community, participated in various Fluxus events including her infamous Vagina Painting (1965) and produced her own Fluxus objects. Kubota also became a member of experimental music group Sonic Arts Union.

In the early 1970s, Kubota began exploring video as a new media, and her practice bore video sculpture, which unified video and three-dimensional sculptural forms. Her major series include Duchampiana, and body of works referencing of Japanese spiritual traditions of nature and landscape. In parallel, she evolved her autobiographical series of single-channel pieces entitled Broken Diary.

Kubota took an active role to organize exhibitions and festivals. From 1974 to 1982, Kubota served as the first Video Curator at the Anthology Film Archives and was instrumental in showcasing emerging video art. 

She exhibited her work widely, including solo exhibitions at The Kitchen, New York (1975), Rene Block Gallery, New York (1976, 77), Long Beach Museum of Art (1977), Japan Society, New York (1978, 83), the American Museum of the Moving Image, New York (1991, toured to Hara Museum, Tokyo and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam), Whitney Museum (1996), and international group exhibitions including Documenta, Kassel (1977, 87), Whitney Biennial (1983), and Venice Biennale (1993). In 2015 Kubota passed away of breast cancer.

Her recent retrospectives include Viva Video toured to the Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of Art, Osaka; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2021–22) and Liquid Reality at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2021). Her work is part of museum collections around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, National Portrait Gallery Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., Central Pompidou, Paris, Center for Arts and Media (ZKM) and others.