Japanese pavilion at the Venice biennial

The Japanese pavilion houses Japan's national representation during the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

arts festivals.

Background

Organization and building

The pavilion, designed by Takamasa Yoshizaka, was built between 1955 and 1956.

Representation by year

Art

* 1952 — Taikan Yokoyama,

Kokei Kobayashi was a Japanese ''Nihonga'' painter. He was friends with Tamako Kataoka (1905–2008). He was a student of Kajita Hanko. He was awarded the Order of Culture. Works File:Kobayashi Fruit.jpg, ''Fruit'' (1910) File:Kobayashi Ideyu.jpg, ''In the ...

, Kiyotaka Kaburaki,

Heihachirō Fukuda was a Japanese ''Nihonga'' painter and designer. He received a commission to decorate the ''Take-no-ma'' audience room of the Tokyo Imperial Palace, a hall that has an area of 182 square meters, or 55 '' tsubo''. The piece “''Take''” depicts ...

, Kyujin Yamamoto, Kenji Yoshioka, Sotaro Yasui, Shinsen Tokuoka, Ryuzaburo Umehara, Ichiro Fukuzawa, Kigai Kawaguchi * 1954 — Hanjiro Sakamoto,

Taro Okamoto Taro () (''Colocasia esculenta)'' is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, and Petiole (botany), petioles. Taro corms are a food ...

* 1956 — Kunitaro Suda, Kazu Wakita, Takeo Yamaguchi, Shigeru Ueki, Toyoichi Yamamoto, Shiko Munakata * 1958 — Ichirō Fukuzawa, Kawabata Ryūshi,

Seison Maeda was the art-name of a nihonga painter in the Taishō and Shōwa periods of Japan. His legal name was Maeda Renzō. He is considered one of the greatest contemporary Japanese painters, and one of the leaders of the Nihonga movement. Biography ...

Kenzo Okada Kenzo Okada (岡田謙三, ''Okada Kenzō''; born on September 28, 1902, died on July 25, 1982) was a Japanese-born American painter and the first Japanese-American artist to work in the Abstract Expressionist style and receive international a ...

Yoshi Kinouchi Yoshi is a fictional dinosaur who appears in video games published by Nintendo. Yoshi debuted in ''Super Mario World'' (1990) on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Mario and Luigi's sidekick. Yoshi is the title character of the ''Yoshi ...

Shindō Tsuji Shindo or Shindō may refer to: * *Shindo (religion) (신도), an alternative name of Korean Shamanism used by Shamanic associations in modern South Korea. People *Shindō (surname) Shindō, Shindo or Shindou (written: , , , ) is a Japanese surna ...

(representative:

Shūzō Takiguchi was a Japanese poet, art critic, and artist. He was the central figure of orthodox Surrealism in pre- and postwar Japan. Devoting his life to exemplifying the movement in its orthodox form. Starting in the 1950s, he began offering new experime ...

; assistant commissioner: Ichirō Fukuzawa and Yoshiaki Tōno) * 1960 —

Toshimitsu Imai Toshimitsu is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Toshimitsu can be written using different combinations of kanji characters. Some examples: *敏光, "agile, light" *敏満, "agile, full" *敏三, "agile, three" *俊光, "talente ...

, Yoshishige Saito, Kei Sato, Kaoru Yamaguchi, Tadahiro Ono, Tomonori Toyofuku, Yoshitatsu Yanagihara, Yozo Hamaguchi * 1962 —

Kinuko Emi Kinuko Emi (江見絹子, ''Emi Kinuko''; born ''Ogino Kinuko'', 荻野絹子, on June 7, 1923, died on January 13, 2015) was a Japanese painter. Emi is best known for her abstract painting in bold colors featuring the motif of four classical ele ...

Minoru Kawabata Minoru Kawabata (川端実, ''Kawabata Minoru''; born on May 22, 1911, died on June 29, 2001) was a Japanese artist. Kawabata is best known for his color field paintings. Between 1960 and 1981, Kawabata had 11 solo shows at the prominent Betty P ...

Kumi Sugai was a Japanese painter and printmaker. Driven by an interest in avant-garde painting, Sugai moved to Paris in 1952 where he quickly attracted critical attention, participating in numerous exhibitions in Paris and abroad. First working in a style ...

, Tadashi Sugimata, Ryokichi Mukai * 1964 — Yoshishige Saito, Toshinobu Onosato, Hisao Domoto, Tomonori Toyofuku * 1966 — Toshinobu Onosato,

Masuo Ikeda was a Japanese painter, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, ceramist, novelist, and film director from Nagano Prefecture. Awards *Ikeda won the Akutagawa Prize for ''Offering In The Aegean'' (''Eegekai ni sasagu''). Museum The Ikeda Masuo Art ...

, Morio Shinoda,

Ay-O Takao Iijima (born May 19, 1931), better known by his art name Ay-O, (靉嘔 ''Ai Ō''), is a Japanese avant-garde visual and performance artist who has been associated with Fluxus since its international beginnings in the 1960s. Biography Ear ...

* 1968 —

Tomio Miki Tomio is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Tomio can be written using different combinations of kanji characters. Some examples: *富雄, "enrich, masculine" *富男, "enrich, man" *富夫, "enrich, husband" *冨雄, "enrich, m ...

Jiro Takamatsu was one of the most important postwar Japanese artists. Takamatsu used photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, and performance to fundamentally investigate the philosophical and material conditions of art. Takamatsu's practice was dedicated to t ...

, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi * 1970 —

Shusaku Arakawa was a Japanese conceptual artist and architect. He had a personal and artistic partnership with the writer and artist Madeline Gins that spanned more than four decades in which they collaborated on a diverse range of visual mediums, including: ...

and

Nobuo Sekine was a Japanese sculptor who resided in both Tokyo, Japan, and Los Angeles, California. A graduate of Tama Art University, he was one of the key members of Mono-ha, a group of artists who became prominent in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The M ...

* 1972 — Kenji Usami, Shintaro Tanaka * 1976 —

Kishin Shinoyama is a Japanese photographer. He is well-known for photographing the covers for John Lennon and Yoko Ono's albums, Double Fantasy and Milk and Honey. Before his marriage to Saori Minami in 1979, he took majority of the photographs for her album co ...

* 1978 — Koji Enokura,

Kishio Suga (born 1944), is a Japanese sculptor and installation artist currently living in Itō, Shizuoka, Japan. He is one of the key members of Mono-ha, a group of artists who became prominent in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Mono-ha artists explored ...

* 1980 — Koji Enokura, Susumu Koshimizu,

Isamu Wakabayashi is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings Isamu can be written using different kanji characters and can mean: *勇, "courage" or "bravery" *勲, "merit" *敢, "gallantry" *武, "war" The name can also be written in hiragana or katak ...

* 1982 — Naoyoshi Hikosaka, Yoshio Kitayama,

Tadashi Kawamata Tadashi Kawamata ( ja, 川俣正 / born July 24, 1953) is a Japanese artist, born in Mikasa City on Hokkaido, who lives and works in Paris. Biography Born in Mikasa City on Hokkaido, Kawamata graduated from Hokkaido Iwamizawa Higashi High S ...

* 1984 — Kosho Ito, Kyoji Takubo, Kosai Hori * 1986 —

, Masafumi Maita * 1988 — Shigeo Toya, Keiji Umematsu,

Katsura Funakoshi is a Japanese sculptor. Funakoshi is considered a leading name in the field of visual arts in his country. His father, Yasutake Funakoshi, was also a sculptor and soon he felt the same vocation. He studied in the University of Art and Design, ...

* 1990 — Toshikatsu Endo, Saburo Muraoka * 1993 —

Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation, and is also active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her work is based in conceptual art and shows some attributes ...

(Commissioner: Akira Tatehata) * 1995 —

Katsuhiko Hibino Katsuhiko (written: 勝彦, 克彦 or 勝比古) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese chemist *, Japanese handball player *, Japanese sumo wrestler *, Japanese sumo wrestler * Katsuhiko Kinoshita (b ...

Yoichiro Kawaguchi is a Japanese computer graphics artist and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo. Kawaguchi rose to international prominence in 1982 when he presented "Growth Model" in the international conference SIGGRAPH. In 2013, Kawaguchi design ...

Hiroshi Senju is a Japanese ''Nihonga'' painter known for his large scale waterfall paintings. Biography Hiroshi Senju was born in Tokyo. He has one brother, composer Akira Senju, and one sister, violinist Mariko Senjyu. He completed the BFA, Tokyo Univer ...

, Jae Eun Choi * 1997 —

Rei Naito is a List of Japanese artists, Japanese artist. Naito's work intersects with Minimalism (visual arts), minimalism, conceptual art, and environmental art, exploring the ways in which human existence is shaped, felt, and made evident amidst its na ...

* 2003 —

Yutaka Sone is a contemporary artist who works in Belgium, China, and Mexico. Sone studied architecture at . From 2000 to 2003, he taught sculpture at UCLA as a visiting instructor. Work His great love and fascination for nature, combined with an open ...

, Motohiko Odani * 2005 —

Miyako Ishiuchi , is a Japanese photographer. In 2005, she represented Japan at the Venice Biennale. In March 2014, she became the third Japanese photographer, following Hiroshi Hamaya and Hiroshi Sugimoto, to received the Hasselblad Foundation International Aw ...

(Commissioner: Michiko Kasahara) * 2007 — Masao Okabe (Commissioner:

Chihiro Minato is a Japanese photographer, filmmaker, arts curator and art theorist. He is also Professor at the Tama Art University or is a private art university located in Tokyo, Japan. It is known as one of the top art schools in Japan. History The fo ...

) * 2009 —

Miwa Yanagi is a Japanese photographic artist who examines self-image and stereotypes of women in contemporary Japanese society. Yanagi was discovered by conceptual photographer Yasumasa Morimura, who noticed some of her work while borrowing her house as a s ...

(Commissioner: Hiroshi Minamishima) * 2011 —

Tabaimo Ayako Tabata (born 1975), also known under her artist name Tabaimo, is a contemporary Japan, Japanese artist. She combines hand-drawn images and digital manipulation to create large scale animations which evoke traditional Japanese woodblock prints ...

(Commissioner: Yuka Uematsu) * 2013 —

Koki Tanaka is a Japanese singer–songwriter and actor. He was a member of Jpop idol boy band KAT-TUN from their debut until September 30, 2013 when his contract with Johnny & Associates (the company that manages KAT-TUN) was terminated. When he was a me ...

(Curator: Mika Kuraya) * 2015 —

Chiharu Shiota (born 1972) is a Japanese performance and installation artist. Educated in Japan, Australia, and Germany, Shiota interweaves materiality and the psychic perception of the space to explore ideas around the body and flesh, personal narratives t ...

(Curator: Hitoshi Nakano) * 2017 — Takahiro Iwasaki (Curator: Meruro Washida) * 2019 — Motoyuki Shitamichi, Taro Yasuno, Toshiaki Ishikura, Fuminori Nousaku (Curator: Hiroyuki Hattori) * 2022 —

Dumb Type Dumb Type is an artist collective based in Kyoto, Japan founded in 1984. Dumb Type is a group of creative art forms that express the new and daily life of the twentieth century modern and technological world of Japan. During the 1980s Dumb Type ...

José da Silva (17 December 2021)
Venice Biennale 2022: all the national pavilions, artists and curators
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The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments ...

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References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{Portal bar, Japan, Visual arts Japanese contemporary art National pavilions