Takahiro Iwasaki

 

Takahiro Iwasaki
Born in Hiroshima, 1975. Lives and works in Hiroshima.

Takahiro Iwasaki creates delicate, ephemeral landscapes using everyday articles such as toothbrushes, towels, bookmarks, and duct tape. He makes visualizations of the realities we ordinarily overlook, while changing the distance from the subject and its scale, thereby undermining our fixed perceptions and changing our awareness.Towers made of towel, threads built on randomly stacked cloth, remind us of the pylons we see in the mountains, and cranes made of bookmarks on books give the illusion of a building site.
Another series of his, ‘Reflection Model’, consists of detailed three-dimensional wooden models of traditional Japanese architecture, which give the impression of being united with its reflection on water. The influence in creating such fragile sceneries comes from the devastation wreaked upon Hiroshima by the atomic bomb, a city where he still lives and works. His art in its mirror imagery alludes to the 180 degrees turn that the city made from a city at the center of a military operation into the City of Peace after its reconstruction – as such his work can also be interpreted as perceptions of time.

Iwasaki held solo exhibitions at Oyama City Kurumaya Museum of Art, Tochigi, Kurobe City Art Museum, Toyama, and the Asia Society in New York (2015), and was selected to represent Japan at the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. And he held solo exhibitions, such as “REFLECTION MODEL (ITSUKUSHIMA)” (NGV International, Melbourne, Australia, 2023), “Takahiro Iwasaki:Nature of Perception” (Portland Japanese Garden, Portland, USA, 2023), “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” (Kanaz Forest of Creation Art Museum, Fukui, Japan, 2024).
In recent years, Iwasaki has participated in many exhibitions inside and outside Japan. The list includes “Biennale Jogja 18 – KAWRUH: Land of Rooted Practices” (Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2025), “KOBE ROKKO MEETS ART” (Chapel of the Wind Area, Hyogo, 2025), “Collection Exhibition”(Yokohama Museum of Art, 2024), “CHAT 5th Anniversary – Factory of Tomorrow”(Centre for Heritage, Arts & Textile, Hong Kong,2024), “Hyakunengo Art Festival – Uchiboso Art Festival – “ (Futtu city, Chiba, Japan, 2023), “The Secret of the Lake – The River Became a Lake” (Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba, Japan, 2023), “ROPPONGI ART NIGHT 2023” (Reine Building 1, Tokyo, 2023), “Visionaries: Making Another Perspective” (Kyoto City KYOCERA Museum of Art, Kyoto, 2023), “Somewhre Between the Odd and the Ordinary” (21st Century Museum of Cpntemporary Art Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, 2021), “Collection as Poem in the Age of Ephemerality” (X museum, Beijin, China, 2020), “Aichi Triennale 2019: Taming Y/Our Passion” (Ito Residence, Aichi, 2019), “Japan – Cuba Contemporary Art Exhibition: Going Away Closer” (Wifredo Lam Center of Contemporary Art, Havana, Cuba, 2018), “Water and Land Niigata Art Festival 2018” (Bandaijima Multipurpose Plaza, Niigata, 2018), “MAM Collection 005: Recycle and Build” (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2017), “Oku-Noto Triennale: SUZU 2017” (old Japanese House in Morikoshi, Ishikawa, 2017), “Paradoxa: Arte Giapponese Oggi” (Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Udine, Italy, 2016), “Nissan Art Award 2015” (BankART Studio NYK, Kanagawa, 2015), “INVENTO – The Revolutions That Invented Us” (OCA Museum, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2015), and “We can make another future: Japanese art after 1989” (Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, 2015).
He won the TAKASHIMAYA ART AWARD in 2022, and New Artist Award of arts category of the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2018.

 

Public Collection

21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile, Hong Kong
Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Kumamoto, Japan
Edinburgh Royal Hospital, Edinburgh, Scotland
Hiroshima City University, Hiroshima, Japan
Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France
Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, Japan
Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean Luxembourg, Luxembourg
M+, Hong Kong
Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, Japan
The Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan
Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Australia
X Museum, Beijing, China
Yokohama Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan
Finck Collection
Nissan Art Collection
Ryutaro Takahashi Collection
Taguchi Art Collection

 

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