Niwa Yoshinori
Born in 1982 in the Aichi Prefecture in Japan, Niwa graduated Tama Art University’s Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts in 2005. Nawa's practice takes the form of social interventions, unfolding into multiple and intertwining layers, such as performance, video and installation. His works bear self-explanatory, slogan-like titles and are performed primarily within the public space, experimenting with actions and propositions that interrogate the capitalistic system determining contemporary society. Over the past 15 years, Niwa has been interested in the history of communism and social nationalism, moving on to projects that explore the nature of national history. Recent projects include Looking for Vladimir Lenin at Moscow Apartments, 2012, in which Niwa searches the homes of ordinary Russian families for images of Lenin years after the demise of the Soviet Union, and Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a Private Space, 2018. His work has been exhibited internationally; recent group exhibitions include Double Vision: Contemporary Art From Japan, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Haifa Museum of Art (2012); Aichi Triennale 2013, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya (2013); Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2013), Historically Historic Historical History of Communism, Edel Assanti, London (2015), OUR BELOVED WORLD, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa (2015), Setouchi Triennale 2016, Naoshima (2016), MAM screen Yoshinori Niwa Selected video works, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2017), steirischerherbst’18, Graz (2018), Practice of Occupation of the Work, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw (2018), TIME FOR OUTRAGE! ART IN TIMES OF SOCIAL ANGER, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (2020), On Rehabilitation of Domination and Domain, Match Gallery/The Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, Ljubljana (2021), Bucharest Biennale 10, Bucharest, Bucharest (2022), 8th Yokohama Triennale—Wild Grass: Our Lives (2024), steirischerherbst'24—Horror Patriae, Graz (2024) , 2024 Asian Art Biennia—How to Hold Your Breath, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art (2024) and his work is included in international collections including the KADIST Foundation, Paris/San Francisco, the Otazu Foundation, Spain, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, Mori Art Museum and Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo. Niwa lives and works in Vienna, Austria.
Education
2005 BFA, Tama Art University Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts, Tokyo, JAPAN
Selected Solo Shows
2023 Why does humankind engage in economic activity?, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, JAPAN
2023 Rehabilitating our human spirit under capitalism, Tenshin Okakura Gallery, Japan Foundation/Shrine Empire, New Delhi, INDIA
2022 Dictatorship of Possessions, Edel Assanti, London, UK
2021 Yoshinori Niwa: On Rehabilitation of Domination and Domain, Match Gallery/The Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
2021 Withdrawing Adolf Hitler from a Private Space, GOLD+BETON, Köln, GERMANY
2020 Rehabilitation of Ancestors, Zimmermann Krachtowill, Graz. AUSTRIA
2020 FROM 1 OCTOBER 2017: FACE COVER BAN IN AUSTRIA, das weisse haus, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2019 The Community We Must Have Imagined, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, JAPAN
2019 We Unanimously Agree on a Plan that Nobody Has Asked For, PARCO gallery X, Tokyo, JAPAN
2017 That Language Sounds Like A Language, Edel Assanti, London, UK
2017 We're Heading to a Place Where Nobody Wants to go By the Will of All, 1335MABINI, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2017 MAM screen #5: Yoshinori Niwa Selected Video Works, Mori Art Museum, JAPAN
2016 Zapoznela hipoteza – Od A do B, Alkatraz Gallery, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
2016 Against Reason, CAPSULE, Tokyo, JAPAN
2016 Power of Ownership, 1335MABINI, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2016 Against Name, Minatomachi Art Table, Nagoya, JAPAN
2015 Historically Historic Historical History of Communism, Edel Assanti, London, UK
2014 Research and Production: Artistic Methods in a Transitional Period, Tamsui Historical Museum, Taipei, TAIWAN
2014 Never Trust in People without Contradiction, 1335MABINI, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2012 Possibilities is the antonym of today, AI KOWADA GALLERY, Tokyo, JAPAN
2012 Possibilities is the antonym of today, GALLERY TERRA TOKYO, Tokyo, JAPAN
2012 Clapping hands for the bears in Bern, NADiff Window Gallery, Tokyo, JAPAN
2011 Searching for community, or their escape drama, AI KOWADA GALLERY, Tokyo, JAPAN
2010 No solution, but brawl, AI KOWADA GALLERY, Tokyo, JAPAN
2010 The Poetics of Activism, gallery αlpha M, Tokyo, JAPAN
2010 Communicating with Thieves, HIAP Project Room, Helsinki, FINLAND
2009 Face round, community!, Migigawanikenme, Tokyo, JAPAN
2009 Transforming puddle A to puddle B, Art in General, NYC, USA
Selected Group shows
2024 2024 Asian Art Biennial—How to Hold Your Breath, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, TAIWAN
2024 steirischer herbst ’24—Horror Patriae, Graz, AUSTRIA
2024 8th Yokohama Triennale Wild Grass: Our Lives, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, JAPAN
2023 Curated By, GABRIELE SENN GALERIE, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2023 Japanese Constitution Exhibition, Aoyama｜Meguro, Tokyo, JAPAN
2023 Water/land/forest/mountain/sky, Odisha State Museum, Delhi, INDIA
2022 Bucharest Biennale 10, Bucharest, ROMANIA
2022 spring show: Yoshinori Niwa and Naoya Hirata, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, JAPAN
2022 Uncurated, Kunstraum Feller, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2022 INEXISTENT BOOKS V, Aula46, Barcelona, SPAIN
2022 COLOMBOSCOPE 2021, Colombo, SRI LANKA
2022 Five Exercises of Resistance, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, ISRAEL
2021 Disposing of Hitler: Out of the Cellar, Into the Museum, The House of Austrian History, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2021 Rule?, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Tokyo, JAPAN
2021 summer show, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, JAPAN
2021 Taking My Thoughts for a Walk, Organised by Dortmunder Kunstverein+Urbane Künste Ruhr, Dortmund, GERMANY
2020 #JAPANREVISTED202X, online, Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo
2020 BIG IDEAS– Political Ideologies and their aftermath, philomena+, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2020 TIME FOR OUTRAGE! ART IN TIMES OF SOCIAL ANGER, Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf, GERMANY
2020 Everything You’ve Ever Wanted is On the Other Side of the Planet, Angewandte Innovation Laboratory, Wien, AUSTRIA
2020 Genealogie der Dinge, Kunstverein Kärnten, Klagenfurt, AUSTRIA
2020 RISO IS IT, OIL by Bijustsutecho, Tokyo, JAPAN
2020 Evacuation, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, JAPAN
2020 FIT’RI:NA فترينة, philomena+, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2020 Games.Fights.Encounters., OnCurating Project Space, Zurich, SWITZERLAND
2019 das weisse ab haus verkaufskunstschauw, das weisse haus, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2019 Shigeru HASEGAWA and Yoshinori NIWA, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, JAPAN
2019 AOMORI EARTH2019: AGROTOPIA – WHEN LIFE BECOMES ART THROUGH LOCAL AGRICULTURE, Aomori Museum of Art, Aomori, JAPAN
2019 45 Salón Nacional de Artistas, Bogota, COLOMBIA
2019 JAPAN UNLIMITED, Marcello Farabegoli Projects, frei_raum Q21 exhibition space MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2019 Protocols of Together, MEDO Space, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2019 Heimat/Homeland/Tierra, Otazu Foundation, SPAIN
2018 Limited Vision, The National Forum of Music Wroclaw, POLAND
2018 steirischer herbst’18—Volksfronten, Graz, AUSTRIA
2018 Practice of Occupation of the Work, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, POLAND
2018 Wars Of Worlds, Visual Kontakt, Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA
2018 Imagining Memory: Between Anaesthesia and Amnesia, 1335MABINI, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2018 Current Sign, Das Weiess Haus, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2017 NET PRESENT VALUE: ART, CAPITAL, FUTURES, Art Stage Singapore, SINGAPORE
2017 Too Pretty To Throw Away, Asia and Pacific Museum, Warsaw, POLAND
2017 Wars Of Worlds, MOA contemporary, Bucharest, ROMANIA
2017 Wars Of Worlds, National Museum of Art Constanța, ROMANIA
2017 Socially Engaged Art, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, JAPAN
2017 Where are we going?, Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz, AUSTRIA
2016 Rivers - The way of Living in Transition/Asia Contemporary Art Links, Gwanju Biennale Hall, Gwanju, SOUTH KOREA
2016 Packaging Design from Japan: Too Pretty to Throw Away, Siebold Huis, Leiden, THE NETHERLAND
2016 Packaging Design from Japan: Too Pretty to Throw Away, Manngha Center, Krakow, POLAND
2016 Setouchi Triennale 2016, Naoshima Island, JAPAN
2016 House of Day, House of Night, @KCUA, Kyoto, JAPAN
2015 OUR BELOVED WORLD, Marugame Inokuma-Genichiro Contemporary Art Museum, Marugame, JAPAN
2015 Rivers - The way of Living in Transition/Asia Contemporary Art Links, The Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung, TAIWAN
2014 Some Like It Witty, Gallery EXIT, HONG KONG
2014 Forces at Work, Jorge B. Vargas Museum and Filipiniana Research Center, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2014 Susukino Triennale 2014, Sapporo, JAPAN
2013 The 7th Move on Asia: Censorship, Alternative Space LOOP, Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
2013 Aichi Triennale 2013, Aichi Arts Center, Nagoya, JAPAN
2013 Roppongi Crossing 2013: OUT OF DOUBT, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
2012 Double Vision: Contemporary Art From Japan, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, RUSSIA
2012 Double Vision: Contemporary Art From Japan, Hiafa Museum of Art, Haifa, ISRAEL
2012 New Gallery × New Artists × New Works, AI KOWADA GALLERY, Tokyo, JAPAN
2012 RYUGU IS OVER, Ryugu Bijutsu Ryokan, Yokohama, JAPAN
2012 Similarities and Differences— Asian Contemporary Media Arts from Daisuke Miyatsu Collection, BEXCO, Busan, SOUTH KOREA
2012 Identity VIII - curated by Shihoko Iida-, nca | nichido contemporary art, Tokyo, JAPAN
2012 Daikanyama Art Street, HILLSIDE FORUM, Tokyo, JAPAN
2012 But Fresh, Tokyo Wonder Site Hongo, Tokyo, JAPAN
2011 Social Dive – Exploratory Imagination, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, JAPAN
2011 Gallery Artists’ show 2011, AI KOWADA GALLERY, Tokyo, JAPAN
2011 Art Struction, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, JAPAN
2011 Re-Modernologio phase2: Observation and Notation, Aomori Cotemporary Art Centre, Aomori, JAPAN
2011 Busan Biennale Sea Art Festival 2011, Busan, SOUTH KOREA
2011 BONE 14 – Performance Art Festival BERN, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
2010 UTOPIA OF EXOTIC, PAVILION UNICREDIT, Bucharest, ROMANIA
2009 The Arts of Togetherness, Gendai Gallery, Toronto, CANADA
2007 ENSEMBLE OF MEN, Matucana 100, Santiago, CHILE
2007 Beauty Farm, Neue Kunst im Hagenbucher, Heilbronn, GERMANY
2006 Living Art from Tokyo and San Francisco, The Lab, San Francisco, USA
2005 Ongoing vol.04 – Read Look Look!, BankART1929, Tokyo, JAPAN
2005 BOY! BOY! BOY!, Ochanomizu Women's University, Tokyo, JAPAN
2005 The Experimenter Project, Artpool Art Research Center, Budapest, HUNGARY
2004 Eyelevel Gallery Summer Performance Series 2004, Eyelevel Gallery, Halifax, CANADA
2004 While you were away: Mail Art Show, 667shotwell, San Francisco, USA
Selected Performances, Screenings
2022 Vienna Art Week 2022, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2022 Performance Exchange, Edel Assanti, London, UK
2019 Foreign Bodies, Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw, Warsaw, POLAND
2016 OUR BELOVED WORLD, Marugame Inokuma-Genichiro Contemporary Art Museum, Marugame, JAPAN
2015 Project Bakawan, University of Philippines Film Center, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2011 6th Carnival of e-Creativity, Sattal Estate, Bhimtal, INDIA
2011 BONE 14 – Performance Art Festival BERN, Schlachthaus Theater, Bern, SWITZERLAND
2010 Communicating with Thieves, Helsinki, FINLAND
2010 Tossing Socialist in the Air in Romania, Bucharest, ROMANIA
2008 Make Tama Art University Pikapikapikapika, Tokyo, JAPAN
2008 6th DaDao Live Art Festival, Shanghai, CHINA
2008 UP-ON First Live Art Festival, Chengdu, CHINA
2007 Bucharest Biennale 3 parallel event, National Theater Bucharest, ROMANIA
2007 Videoscreening II, Lothringer 13, Munich, GERMANY
2007 East-West Study Project 2007 – The Art of „Encounter“, Koln, Dusseldorf, Hanover, GERMANY
2007 KargART Video Festival, Istanbul, TURKEY
2006 INPORT – International Video-Performance Art Festival, Tallinn, ESTONIA
2006 Action Art After Zerojigen Generation, Tokyo, JAPAN
2006 SPRINGTIDES, Salzau Castle, Schleswig-Holstein, GERMANY
Artist-in-Residencies
2020 KÜNSTLERHAUS BÜCHSENHAUSEN, Innsbruck, AUSTRIA
2014 Hotspring Project, Taipei, TAIWAN
2014 1335MABINI Working in Residency, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2011 Contemporary Art Centre Aomori, Aomori, JAPAN
2010 Helsinki International Artist-in-Residency Programme (HIAP), Helsinki, FINLAND
2007 TOAH Artist-in-Residency Programme, TOU SCENE – Centre for Contemporary Art, Stavanger, NORWAY
2005 VENT Live Art Residency, Oxfordshire Visual Arts Development Agency, Oxford, UK
Guest Lectures
2024 Kyushu University, Fukuoka, JAPAN
2024 Nagoya University of Arts, Nagoya, JAPAN
2024 Tomo Toshi Museu, Tokyo, JAPAN
2023 The Japan Foundation, New Delhi, INDIA
2018 Welcome Disappointed Welcome GovernmentVisual Kontakt, Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA
2017 Mori Art Museumm, Tokyo, JAPAN
2017 Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, NORTHERN IRELAND
2017 Kyoto University, Kyoto, JAPAN
2016 Manngha Center, Krakow, POLAND
2016 SCCA- Center for Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana, SLOVENIA
2015 Minatomachi Art Table, Nagoya, JAPAN
2015 Goldsmith College, London, UK
2015 Kyoto City University of Arts, Kyoto, JAPAN
2014 Tamkang University, Taipei, TAIWAN
2012 Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, RUSSIA
2012 The Japan Foundation, Moscow, Moscow, RUSSIA
2012 The Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia, Moscow, RUSSIA
2012 Waseda University, Tokyo, JAPAN
2012 Tama Art University, Tokyo, JAPAN
2011 Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, Aomori, JAPAN
Art Fairs
2023 Fukuoka Asia Art Fair 2023, JAPAN
2022 Art Collaboration Kyoto, JAPAN
2022 PARALLEL VIENNA 2022, AUSTRIA
2020 I NEVER READ, Zurich, SWITZERLAND
2020 CADAN, Tokyo, JAPAN
2019 Vienna Art Book Fair, Vienna, AUSTRIA
2018 UNTITLED Miami Beach 2018, U.S.A.
2018 Art Basel Hong Kong 2018, HONG KONG
2017 ArtStage Singapore, SINGAPORE
2016 Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, U.S.A
2015 Officielle, Paris, FRANCE
2015 Art Fair Philippines 2015, Manila, PHILIPPINES
2014 ART TAIPEI 2014, Taipei, TAIWAN
2014 3331 Art Fair Various Collectors’ Prizes, 3331 Arts Chiyoda, Tokyo, JAPAN
2009 ULTRA 2009, Tokyo, JAPAN
Awards, Nominates, Grants, Scholarships
2024 Ogasawara Toshiaki Memorial Foundation, JAPAN
2024 Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo, JAPAN/AUSTRIA
2024 Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport, Project funding, AUSTRIA
2023 Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo, JAPAN/AUSTRIA
2023 Nomura Foundation, Project funding, JAPAN
2023 Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport, Project funding, AUSTRIA
2022 Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport, Project funding, AUSTRIA
2021 Ogasawara Toshiaki Memorial Foundation, JAPAN
2020 Ogasawara Toshiaki Memorial Foundation, JAPAN
2019 Nomura Foundation, Project funding, JAPAN
2019 Harmonic Ito Foundation, Research funding, JAPAN
2019 POLA Art Foundation, Project funding, JAPAN
2018 Bildrecht, Project funding, AUSTRIA
2018 Nomura Foundation, Project funding, JAPAN
2018 Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus2014, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, GERMANY (nominated)
2017 Aethetica Art Prize 2017 Longlist, UK
2016 Future Generation Art Award 2016, Victor Pinchuk Foundation, UKRAINE (nominated)
2015 Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists (long term), Agency for Cultural Affairs, JAPAN
2014 Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists (short term), Agency for Cultural Affairs, JAPAN
2014 Prudential Eye Award 2015, Prudential Contemporary Art, SINGAPORE (nominated)
2014 Future Greats 2014, ArtReview, UK
2014 Follow Fluxus – After Fluxus2014, Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, GERMANY (nominated)
Publications
2020 Rehabilitation of Ancestors, Self-publishing, Wien
2019 Following Red People in Vienna, PARCO, Tokyo
2018 Welcome Disappointed Welcome Government, Self-publishing, Wien
2017 Till the Demise of Capitalism, Art-Phil, Tokyo
2016 Tempura! Special edition for Setouchi Triennale (artist book), UMISHIBAURA, Tokyo
2015 Against Name (artist book), self-publishing, Tokyo
2015 Historically Historic Historical History of Communism (monograph), Art-Phil, Tokyo
2015 Tempura! (artist book), UMISHIBAURA, Tokyo
2013 Reenacting Publicness - Translating Art Work Descriptions into 23 Different Languages (artist book), My Book Service, Tokyo
2010 The Community of Ruin (artist book), self-publishing, Tokyo
Collections
Otazu Foundation, SPAIN
Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw, POLAND
Kadist Foundation, Paris/San Francisco
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, JAPAN
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo, JAPAN
The Fukutake Foundation, Kagawa, JAPAN
Takahashi Collection, Tokyo, JAPAN
United Arrows Ltd., Tokyo, JAPAN
Private Collection, Tokyo, JAPAN
Private Collection, Taipei, TAIWAN
Private Collection, Manila, Philippines
Private Collection, London, UK
Private Collection, Washington, US