Teruko Yokoi and the Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea recently opened a spectacular sushi lounge named after one of the hotel's former residents, Teruko Yokoi. Just published is an Architectural Digest feature narrating the history of the hotel with mention of the new "Teruko".
Architectural Digest/Hotel Chelsea. 02.23.2026
TERUKO YOKOI (b. 1924 Tsushima, Aichi, Japan d. 2020 Bern, Switzerland)
Yokoi moved to New York in 1956 and enrolled in the school of the legendary German Abstract Expressionist Hans Hofmann. It was during this time that Yokoi met Kenzo Okada, an Abstract Expressionist Japanese-born painter working in America, who moved from Tokyo to New York in 1950. Okada, among many others, became friends with Mark Rothko, whom he introduced to Yokoi. In 1957, Yokoi met Sam Francis and the couple married in 1959 and welcomed their daughter in 1960 while they resided in the penthouse of the Chelsea Hotel alongside vanguards such as Joan Mitchell. At this juncture, Yokoi’s work grew increasingly concerned with the use of color, with the artist producing works that put varying colors in conversation with one another. In 1960, Yokoi moved to Paris, and from abroad, participated in a group exhibition at the storied Martha Jackson Gallery in New York. She also had an important exhibition at the cutting-edge Minami Gallery in 1961. It was in Paris where she would meet Arnold Rüdlinger, a meeting that would lead to her first major museum exhibition in Basel at the Kunsthalle in 1964. In 1962, the artist permanently relocated to Bern, Switzerland, where she would remain until her death in 2020.