Zoia Skoropadenko

Zoia Skoropadenko was born in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, in 1978. She lives and works in Monaco, where she was recognised as an Artist-Painter of Monaco in 2011. She works in painting, drawing, sculpture and ceramics, and has exhibited in Europe, Japan and the United States.

Her sumo work has been made over many years by drawing inside sumo stables and at tournaments, from direct observation rather than from photographs alone. A recurring subject is Taihō Kōki, the 48th yokozuna, whose father was of Ukrainian origin. In 2025 the Taihō Sumo Memorial Museum in Teshikaga, Hokkaido, showed her exhibition Life of the Champion. In 2026 the series was shown at aiiima in Shibuya Hikarie in May, and in June at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Paris, timed to the Grand Sumo tour at the Accor Arena.

In October 2026 she presented SUMO: The Sacred Spirit, a solo exhibition at Pasona Group’s Annex Aoyama in Tokyo, bringing large ink works on Japanese washi, drawings made from life in the stables and ritual still lifes together with historical objects connected to sumo’s traditions.