SUGA KISHIO

• SUGA KISHIO, born in Iwate Prefecture, is a contemporary Japanese artist and one of the key figures of Mono-ha, an artistic movement that emerged in Japan in the late 1960s. He boldly uses space and combines everyday objects such as wood, stone, and metal to create his works. Major collections: The Dallas Museum of Art; Tate Gallery; The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo; Chiba City Museum of Art; and Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art.

• relevant artists

  • ONOSATO TOSHINOBU

    ONOSATO TOSHINOBU, Japanese abstract painter and artist. He established a mosaic-like geometric abstract style, working with silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut techniques, and represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1964 and 1966. Major Collections: Guggenheim Museum, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.

  • SEKINE NOBUO

    SEKINE NOBUO was a Japanese sculptor and one of the key figures of Mono-ha, an artistic movement that emerged in Japan in the late 1960s and developed through the 1970s. Mono-ha artists explored the relationships between natural and industrial materials, using materials such as stone, steel, glass, wood, paper, cotton, wire, rope, oil, and water, often presenting them in largely unaltered states. Their works focused not only on the materials themselves, but also on the relationships between objects and the surrounding space. Through these practices, Mono-ha invited a reconsideration of the relationships between nature and the artificial, matter and space.

  • FUKUDA SHIGEO

  • TESHIGAHARA HIROSHI

  • LEE U-FAN

    LEE U-FAN is an internationally acclaimed artist and a leading figure of the Mono-ha movement. He came to Japan in 1956 to study philosophy at Nihon University, where he absorbed a wide range of Eastern and Western thought and literature and played a pivotal role in the development of the Mono-ha movement. He had solo exhibitions at some of the world's most prominent museums, including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA, in 2011 and the Centre Georges Pompidou, Metz, France, in 2019. In 2010, he opened the Lee Ufan Museum in Naoshima, Japan, in collaboration with Ando Tadao. He also established the Space LeeUFan Gallery on the grounds of the Busan Municipal Museum of Art. Major Collections: The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Guggenheim Museum; Centre Pompidou; Tate Gallery; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; National Museum of Art, Osaka; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto.

  • IMAI NORIO

    IMAI NORIO, a sculptor from Osaka, Japan, is a prominent figure in the field of visual arts. He serves as an honorary professor at Seian University of Art and Design. In 1966, he won the first prize at the 10th Shell Art Award. Since then, he has exhibited his works in various exhibitions both domestically and internationally, including the Paris Youth Biennale, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, and the Ashiya City Museum of Art and History, among others, up to the present day.

  • KASHIHARA ETSUTOMU

    KASHIHARA ETSUTOMU was born in Kobe in 1941 and began studying painting at Tama Art University in 1961. Since the late 1960s, he has been creating works that question the foundation of art. In the 1970s, he gained attention as a conceptual and non-material artist. Until today, he has maintained a steadfast approach to his artistic practice, unaffected by the passage of time.

  • KAWAGUCHI TATSUO

    KAWAGUCHI TATSUO, a sculptor from Hyogo Prefecture, graduated from the Department of Painting at Tama Art University. In 1972, he received an Excellence Award at the Grand Prize Exhibition held at the newly opened Hakone Open-Air Museum, establishing his reputation as a sculptor.