Kenji Yanobe
Kenji Yanobe
Born in Osaka,1965. Lives in Osaka.
Kenji Yanobe attended Kyoto City University of Arts and received a Master of Arts degree in 1991.
Since the early 1990s, Yanobe has been incorporating the theme of survival in present-day society into his work, creating numerous large-scale mechanical sculptural works that may be attached to one’s body or ridden and controlled. With a dawn of the 21st century, Yanobe shifted his artistic theme to “Revival” and in 2003, he held the exhibition “Megalomania” as a culmination of his work up to that time at The National Museum of Art, Osaka (on the site of Osaka Expo ‘70 world’s fair). In 2004, he created The City of Children Project during a six-month residency at 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. Continuously, he develops artistic activities that transcend established artistic forms to expand with such projects as Kindergarten (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, 2005), The World of Torayan (Kirishima Open-Air Museum, Kagoshima, 2007) and ULTRA (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, 2009).
Recent solo exhibitions include “FUKUSHIMA WORKS” GALLERY OFF GRID, Fukushima (2016), “CINEMATIZE” Takamatsu Art Museum, Kagawa (2016), “KOMAINU -Guardian Beasts-” Hieizan Enryakuji, Shiga (2019) besides constant participation in “Setouchi Triennale”, “Aichi Triennale”, and “Fukushima Biennale”. With numerous projects and presentation in the public space, his works have been previously seen in many group exhibitions in and out of the country such as “Persona” Musée de Quai Branly, Paris (2016), and “PARERGON: JAPANESE ART OF THE 1980s and 1990s” BLUM & POE, Los Angeles (2019).
Collection
FNAC Fond National d’Art Contemporain in France, France
FRAC Provance-Alpes-Cóte-D’Azur, France
Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Fukuoka, Japan
Kyoto City, Kyoto, Japan
Fukuroi City, Shizuoka, Japan
University Art Museum, Santa Barbara, California, US
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
Galleria d’Arte Moderna di Bologna, Italy
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan
Contro Per L’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
Ohara Museum of Art, Okayama, Japan
Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo, Japan
East side of Minami Ibaraki Station, Osaka, Japan
Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, Japan
Sakate Shodoshima, Kagawa, Japan
M+, Hong Kong
Takahashi Ryutaro Collection