ShugoArts Show

Born in 1951 in Osaka, Japan. Morimura currently lives in Osaka. He exhibited his first self-portrait work, Portrait／Van Gogh, in 1985. Since then, he has continued to present “self-portrait photographs in the disguise of something or someone” on a variety of subjects with the consistent theme of “I”. His works are completed by approaching the subjects (people and artworks) from his unique perspective while incorporating meticulous research, self-created dioramas and studio set construction, costumes and makeup, etc. At the same time, he has been involved in a wide range of activities including video, performance, and writing. His major works include Art History series, Actress series, and A Requiem series. Having established M@M (Morimura@Museum) in 2018, where visitors can view Morimura’s documents and self-produced exhibitions, Morimura continues to work both domestically and internationally.

Selected Solo Exhibitions: “My Self-Portraits as a Theater of Labyrinths”, Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Higashiyama Cube, Kyoto, 2022; “Jam Session: The Ishibashi Foundation Collection × Morimura Yasumasa A Gift of the Sea, M-Style Morimura Yasumasa’s Auto-Mytholo”, Artizon Museum, Tokyo, 2021; “Yasumasa Morimura: Ego Obscura, Tokyo 2020”, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2020; “YASUMASA MORIMURA: EGO OBSCURA”, Japan Society, New York, 2018; “My Chronicle 1985 – 2018”, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2018; “Yasumasa Morimura. The history of the self-portrait”, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, 2017; “The Self-Portraits of YASUMASA MORIMURA: My Art, My Story, My History”, National Museum of Art, Osaka, 2016; “Yasumasa Morimura: Theater of the Self”, The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, 2014; “Yasumasa Morimura: LAS MENINAS RENACEN DE NOCHE”, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, 2013; “Yasumasa Morimura: Rembrandt Room Revisited”, Hara Museum, Tokyo, 2013; “A Requiem: Art on Top of the Battlefield”, Travelled to Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo; Toyota Municipal Museum of Art; Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima; Hyogo Prefecture Museum of Art, Kobe, 2021-2011; “Yasumasa Morimura—Requiem for the XX Century, Twilight of the turbulent Gods”, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa Galleria di Piazza San Marco, Venice, 2007.

Selected Publications: Jigazo-no-yukue, Kobun-sha; Utsukushiitte-nandaro? Bijutsu-no-susume, Riron-sha; Bijutsu-no-kaibogakukogi, Chikuma-gakugei-bunko; Geijyutuka-M-no-dekirumade, Chikuma-syobo.

Selected Public Collections: 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (Ishikawa, Japan). Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). Carnegie Museums of Art (Pittsburg, USA). Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo, Japan). J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA). Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain). Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). Museum of Modern Art (New York, USA). The National Museum of Art, Osaka (Osaka, Japan). The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto (Kyoto, Japan). Saatchi Gallery (London, UK). San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, USA). Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo (Tokyo, Japan). Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, USA).

Yuji Ono was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1963. After graduating from the Photography Department at Osaka University of Arts in 1986, he moved to France and has continued to live and work in Paris ever since then. Ono has been exploring “light,” the foundation of photography as a medium, in his different series. In Tableaux series, he reconfigures the relation between painting and photography by photographing Western paintings under natural light coming through windows or dim light at the museums in which those paintings are exhibited. Luminescence series captures accumulated light in chandeliers that are illuminated by other artificial light sources.

Vice Versa – Les Tableaux at ShugoArts (2018) and Maison Européenne de la Photographie (2006) is one of his well-known solo exhibitions. His artworks were also featured in Light and Shadow: First There Was Light, the group exhibition held at Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (2006). Ono’s artworks are collected by François-Mitterrand Library, Carnavalet Museum, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Maison Européenne de la Photogrphie, Pinault Collection, Alaia Collection, Shanghai Art Museum, and Tokyo Photographic Art Museum.

Born in Hyogo, Japan, in 1965. Currently lives and works in London. In her practice, Yoneda incorporates her laborious research in order to deal with the ideologies of the 20th century. The nature of her artmaking has taken her not only to places in Japan where the past wars and earthquakes are still traceable, but also to regions in both Western and Eastern Europe and Asia where people’s memories are still strongly ingrained. Yoneda probes into historical facts that are embedded in specific locations and objects through her photography, which recalls multi-layered memories offering a cornucopia of poetic sensibility behind each scene.

Selected exhibitions: Crystals, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2024; Echoes―Crashing waves, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2022; Tomoko Yoneda, Fundación MAPFRE, Madrid, 2021; Dialogue with A.C., ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2019; 12th Shanghai Biennale 2018, Shanghai, 2018-19; Dialogue with Albert Camus, Maison de la culture du Japon à Paris, 2018; Discordant Harmony, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, 2015/ Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, 2016; The 10th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, 2014; Aichi Triennale, Aichi, 2013; We shall meet in the place where there is no darkness, Himeji City Museum of Art, Hyogo, 2014/ Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo, 2013; Arsenale 2012: The First Kyiv International Biennale of Contemporary Art, Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine, 2012; Japanese House, ShugoArts, Tokyo, 2011; An End is a Beginning, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2008; Venice Biennale, The 52nd International Art Exhibition, Venice, 2007; A Decade After, Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, Hyogo, 2005; Beyond Memory and Uncertainty, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo, 2003