Go Watanabe
Go Watanabe
Born in Hyogo, 1975. Lives and works in Tokyo.
While studying at the Graduate School of Aichi Prefectural University of the Arts, Go Watanabe began to experiment with modes of artistic expression made possible by the techniques of 3DCG. In 2002, Watanabe presented face, for which he created a facial structure with 3DCG and covered it with images of human skin. He went on to develop a face (“portrait”) series by superimposing various images of human skin on the same 3D model and creating portraits of anonymous subjects. While using the same technique, beginning around 2009, Watanabe shifted his choice of motifs in his works to familiar things around him such as books, tableware, and rooms, and now mainly creates animation videos that move independently from the properties of physics and optics, or installation pieces that are combined with these videos. In his recent works especially, he focuses on the movement of light and makes us realize that light is the way of perceiving landscape as well as being perception itself. The subtle energy inherent in his work allows us once again to pause and recognize what our eyes perceive.
After his residency program in Finland, he had the solo exhibition “Go Watanabe dislocation”, Yokohama Civic Art Gallery Azamino, Kanagawa, Japan (2017). His exhibitions in recent years are “‘one landscape,’ a journey”, KAMU kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan (2021-2022), “Countermeasures Against Awkward Discourses: From the Perspective of Third Wave Feminism”, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan (2021-2022), “The Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2021”, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Maison Franco-Japonaise, Tokyo (2021), “Writing in the rain: Contemporary Asian video art from the National Gallery of Victoria”, Gallery 1 & 2, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Morwell, Australia (2018), “NGV Collection”, The National Gallery of Victoria International, Melbourne, Australia (2017), “50th Anniversary Exhibition – Arts Begin From Forest”, Aichi University of Arts (2016), “Logical Emotion”, Museum of Contemporary Art in MOCAK Krakow, Poland (2015) / Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle, Land Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany (2015) / Museum Haus Konstructiv, Zurich, Switzerland (2014), “Aichi Triennale 2013 : Awakening”, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan (2013), “Cosmic Travelers – Toward the Unknown”, Espace Louis Vuitton, Tokyo (2012), and “Carpe Diem. Seize the Day”, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi (2012), “Big in Japan”, Contemporary Art Center (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania (2009).
He was nominated as the finalist for the APB Foundation Signature Art Prize 2014 and awarded the Newcomer’s Prize of Art at the 24th Gotoh Memorial Cultural Award in 2013.
Public Collection
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia
Toyota Motor Corporation, Aichi, Japan
Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, Turkey
Daisuke Miyatsu Collection
Takahashi Ryutaro Collection
Taguchi Art Collection
Exhibition