photo: Barbara Niggl-Rodoloft
Noriyuki Haraguchi (1946)
Born in Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
Nihon University, College of Art
Starting out as an artist in the late 60s, in 1977 Haraguchi became the first Japanese artist selected for “Documenta 6,” the international art exhibition held every 4 years in Kassel, Germany and his work received critical acclaim. He went on to participate in the “10th Biennale de Paris,” Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France and in 1978 he had his first international solo exhibition at the Galerie Alfred Schmela in Düsseldorf, Germany. Following his solo exhibition “HARAGUCHI” at the Lenbachhaus, München, Germany in 2001 and an exhibition in homage to Malevich titled “Das Schwarze Quadrat. Hommage en Malewitsch,” at the Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany in 2007, Haraguchi held his first retrospective in Japan, “Noriyuki Haraguchi: Society and Matter,” and included new works at Yokohama's BankART1929 Studio NYK in 2009.
photo: Fumiaki Banba
Ataru Sato (1986)
Born in Chiba, Japan
Advanced Art Course, Department of Information Design, Faculty of Art and Design, Kyoto Art and Design, B.A.
Sato started his career as an artist while still in university holding his first solo exhibition “ATARU SATO: His Sea”, at New York's Mehr Gallery in 2007 followed by “Dorodoro, Doron-The Uncanny World in Folk and Contemporary Art in Asia,” at the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan in 2009. Recently he has presented works at the 8th Gwangju Biennale 2010: “10000 LIVES”, Korea, “First Love,” Gallery Koyanagi, Tokyo in 2011 and the “YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2011: OUR MAGIC HOUR- How Much of the World Can we Know?” where he presented his large-scale universe drawings for the first time.
photo: Fuminari Yoshitsugu
Tomoko Shioyasu (1981)
Born in Osaka, Japan
Graduated in Art Sculpture from Kyoto City University of Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts
Shioyasu received the “Origin Award” from the Kyoto City University of Art in 2004 for her thesis exhibition and in 2005 won the “Grand Prix” at the 6th Spiral Independent Creators Festival (Tokyo). In 2008 her solo exhibition, “Cutting Insights” at Tokyo's SCAI THE BATHHOUSE received the Gotoh Memorial Foundation's “Gotoh Memorial Foundation Newcomer's Prize of Art” the same year. Recently she took part in the “MOT Annual 2010: Neo-Ornamentalism from Japanese Contemporary Art” exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo in 2009 and in 2011 she participated in several international group exhibitions such as the “Bye Bye Kitty!!! Between Heaven and Hell in Contemporary Japanese Art, 2011” exhibition held by the New York Japan Society and “Terra Incognita: INCHEON WOMEN ARTISTS' BIENNALE”, Incheon, Korea.
Takagi Masakatsu (1979)
Born in Kyoto, Japan
Since 2001 he has been engaged in a wide variety of activities, both as a musician and filmmaker, presenting his unique works, which are a fusion of sound and visual imagery, holding exhibitions at art museums and concerts around the world, as well as taking part in film festivals.
In 2001, he gave a live performance at the closing event of the 7th Istanbul Biennale, and in 2002, he embarked on his European live tour, in 18 cities across 8 countries. In 2003, he played a role in David Sylvian's European tour with his video works, as well as collaborating with Tama Art University, Institute for Art Anthropology (Head: Shin'ichi Nakazawa) and RIKEN, Center for Developmental Biology, on joint projects which traverse the boundaries of diverse genres.
In 2009, his documentary film “ARUONGAKU” was shown both domestically and overseas (Canada, Germany and France), and in 2010 he had his first piano solo tour “Ymene”, in which he performed at 7 venues around the country.
Go Watanabe (1975)
Born in Hyogo, Japan
MA Fine Art, Aichi Prefecture Art and Music University
In 1999 while still at university Watanabe, along with 13 others, established “art space dot” in Nishi Kasugai-Gun, Aichi, Japan and embarked on his artistic career. After exhibiting works at the 2005 group exhibition, “very very human” at the Toyota Municipal Museum of Art he held a solo exhibition “face” featuring works that would form the basis of his current animations at ARATANIURANO, Tokyo. He has also taken part in “Have you Eaten Yet?: Asian Art Biennial” at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung and has also started drawing attention from outside Japan as well. Recently in 2010, as part of Aichi Triennale, Watanabe presented works from his solo exhibition in “Discovering Contemporary Art 6 Go Watanabe Shiroi Hanashi Kuroi Hanashi” at the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya.
