Miwa YANAGI
Born in Kobe City. Completed the research course of the Graduate School of Arts of Kyoto City University of Arts. Yanagi held her first solo exhibition in Kyoto in 1993. Later she won attention with a series of composite photograph works titled Annaijo no Heya (Room of the Guide Ladies) that showed groups “elevator girls” [uniformed department store elevator attendants] placed in a variety of urban spaces. She went on to win international acclaim with works including My Grandmothers , a photograph series creating visual portrayals of young women who take on the role of themselves 50 years from now and Fairy Tale , in which young women take on the roles of girls and old women in fairy tale settings, making use of special effects in photographic images that deal with the subjects of gender, aging, life and death and oppressed personalities.
Since 2010, Yanagi has begun undertaking projects in theatre, introducing historical fiction plays based on detailed research of the process of Japan’s modernization in the 20th century and staged them in a style that makes innovative use of “guide ladies,” as symbolic of social repression, in roles as choruses or narrators, achieving a new form of theatrical expression. With her 2013 work Zero Hour – Tokyo Rose, the Last Tape , in addition to doing the scriptwriting, directing and stage art herself, Yanagi has created a full-scale theatrical production by enlisting the collaboration of other professionals, including the design the theater sets by Torafu Architects company, the “Formant Brothers,” who as researchers in the composition of the human voice have created voices for use in the play, and her now signature “guide ladies” as performers.
In 2009, Yanagi was selected as a representative for the Japan Pavilion of the Venice Biennale. In 2012, she became a professor in the Arts and Crafts Department of Kyoto City University of Arts.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
“The Goddess and the God Separate Under The Peach Tree”, Loock Galerie, Berlin
2010
“Lullaby”, Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo
“Fairy Tales”, Kulturhuset Stockholm, Sweden
2009
“po-po niang-niang”, National Museum of Arts, Osaka
“My Grandmothers”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
Bienal de Venecia. Artista seleccionada en representación del pabellón de Japón
2008
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
Natinal Museum of Art, Osaka
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Caroline Wiess Law Building
Natinal Museum of Art, Osaka
Miwa Yanagi -Deutsche Bank Collection. The Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston: Caroline Wiess Law Building
2007
Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture from Japan.
“798” Dashanzi Art
District , Guangdong Museum of Art
Miwa Yanagi, Deutsche Bank Collection, Chelsea Art Museum (New York)
2006
Taipei Contemporary Art Museum
Aichi Contemporary Art Center
Gwangju-Biennial Korea
2005
Presentación del DVD “Suna Onna” en el Hara Museum of Contemporary Art
“The Incredible Tale of the Innocent Old Lady and the Heartless Young Girl” Hara
Museum of Contemporary Art
2004
“Fairy Tale & Video “Girls in her sand” Galería Leyendecker, Tenerife, Spain
“Miwa Yanagi – Sammlung Deutsche Bank” Deutsche Guggenheim / Berlin
“Miwa Yanagi Darkness of Girlhood & Lightness of Aging” Marugame
Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art / Kagawa
“Granddaughters” Lille 2004, Lille, France
2003
“My Grandmothers” Wohnmaschine / Berlin
“Miwa Yanagi” Galería Leyendecker / Islas Canarias (España)
2002
“My Grandmothers” Galerie Almine Rech / Paris
“Miwa Yanagi” Istituto Giapponese di Cultura in Roma / Rome
“Miwa Yanagi Granddauchters” Shiseido Gallery / Tokyo
“Miwa Yanagi” Fukuoka Art Museum / Fukuoka
“Miwa Yanagi My Grandmothers” KPO Kirin Plaza Osaka / Osaka
2001
“Grandmother” Gallery Kodama / Osaka)
2000
“Miwa Yanagi” Galerie Almine Rech (Paris)
“My Grandmother” Art Space Niji / Kyoto
1999
“Midnight Dream Awakening” Gallery Kodama / Osaka
1998
“Miwa Yanagi” Wohnmaschine / Berlin
“Miwa Yanagi” Art Space Niji / Kyoto
1997
“Miwa Yanagi” Gallery Muramatsu / Tokyo
“CRITERIUM31” Art Tower Mito / Ibaragi
1994
“Looking for the next story”, Gallery Sowaka( Kyoto)
1993
The White Casket Art Space Niji( Kyoto)
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2018
“Dread & Delight: Fairy Tales in an Anxious World”, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro
2017
“All The Better To See You With: Fairy Tales Transformed”, The Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne
“Asia Corridor Contemporary Art Exhibition”, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto
“10 Years Old”, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Modena
2016
“Order & Reorder”, National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto (MOMAK), Kyoto
“Photographic Support”, Galería Leyendecker, Tenerife
2013
Group Show, Galería Leyendecker, Tenerife
2011
Gespenster, Magie und Zauber – Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design in Nürnberg, Nuremberg
ENTROPIA – Philara – Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst, Dusseldorf Be Alive! – Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women and Art – Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL
2010
10 Jahre PaK – Palais für aktuelle Kunst – Palais für aktuelle Kunst – Kunstverein
Glückstadt, Glückstadt
Tsubaki-kai – Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo.
My Favorites – Index of a Certain Collection: Selections from the MoMAK
Collection – National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto (MOMAK), Kyoto
Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH
Collection – MFAH – Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
Great New Wave – Contemporary Art from Japan – Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC.
2009
Merry-Go-Round -twinkling and twilight – Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto – CAMK, Kumamoto
Medicine and Art: Imagining a Future for Life and Love – Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
Golden Agers & Silver Surfers – Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel
Selections from the Hara Museum – Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo
53nd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale / Biennale di Venezia – La Biennale di Venezia, Venice
Second Skin – Spazio Paraggi, Treviso
Der Schmerz sitzt tief – Opelvillen, Rüsselsheim
2008
Asian Dub Photography – Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena
Daegu Photo Biennale 2008 – Daegu Photo Biennale, Daegu
Inszenierte Wirklichkeit — Ursprung und Gegenwart der japanischen
Fotografie – Sammlung March – Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot
Ein Leben lang / All your life – Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), Berlin
El don de la vida. En torno al envejecimiento y su representación artística – Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida
Great New Wave: Contemporary Art from Japan – Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON
Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan
– ICP – International Center of
Photography, New York City, NY
Still / Motion – Liqiud Crystal Painting – NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka
Still/Motion – Liquid-crystal Painting – Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Tsu City
Sheishedo Gallery. Japón
2007
The 30th Anniversary – Collection of the National Museum of Art, Osaka – NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka
Global Feminisms – Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York City, NY
“Tsubaki Kai Ten” Shiseido gallery
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
I Bienal de Arquitectura, Arte y Paisaje de Canarias
2006
1. Bienal de Canarias – Bienal de Canarias, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
All the Best. The Deutsche Bank Collection and Zaha Hadid – Singapore Art Museum, Singapore
SlowTech – MOCA Taipei, Taipei
Short Stories – Leo Castelli Gallery, New York City, NY
Collection 1 – NMAO National Museum of Art Osaka, Osaka
“Gwabgju Biennale: Fever Variations” Gwangju Korea
“Chikaku: Perception, Time and Memory in Japan”, Taro Okamoto Museum of Art.
2005
“Chikaku”. Tiempo y Memoria en Japon. Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo
“Chikaku” Kunsthaus Graz
“Growing Old-The forms and Aesthetics of Aging” – Fukushima Museum
“Shangai Cool” – Shangai Duolun Museum of Modern Art
“Fashion & Style in Photography 2005” – The Museum Moscow House of Photography
2004
“Roppongi Crossing New Visions in Contemporary Japanese Art 2004” Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
“Takarazuka: The Land of Dreams” Suntry Museum, Osaka, Tokyo
Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo
“Self-Portrait Landscape”, Woo Je Gil Museum, Kwangju, Korea
2003
“Girls Don’t Cry” Parco Museum, Tokyo.
“The History of Japanese Photography” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston / Houston
“The American Effect” Whitney Museum of American Art / New York
“Contemporary Art Exhibition
“Du Cote De Chez…”” Eglise Sainte Marie-Madeleine / Lille (France)
“Kokoro no Arika – Location of the Spirit; Japanese Contemporary Art” Ludwig Museum
Budapest – Museum of Contemporary Art / Budapest
2002
“Chameleon Dream- Trans / Forming Identity in Contemporary Japanese Photography”
Julia Friedman Gallery, Chicago
“Biennal of Sydney: The World May Be (Fantastic)” / Sydney
Photo España – Chicas Vs. Abuelas” / Madrid
“Future Plan“( Hyogo Prefecrural Museum of Art,Hyogo)
2001
“Complicity (Connivence), Biennale of Lyon 2001 Prelude to 2003” / Lyon
“YOKOHAMA 2001: International Trienanale of Contemporary Art” / Yokohama
“Senritsumirai- Futuro anteriore: Arte Attuale dal Giappone” (Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy)
“Neo-Tokyo : Japanese Art Now” (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney)
2000
“Freeze” (Espaco Cultural Sergio Porto, Rio de Janeiro)
“Elysian Fields“ (Centre Pompidou, Paris)
“Department Store of Contemporary Art” Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art / Yamanashi
“Japan medium light” (Montevideo Time Based Arts. Netherlands Media Art Institute / Amsterdam)
“GENDAI CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE ART BETWEEN BODY AND SPACE” The Centre for Contemporary Art, Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw (Poland).
1999
“The Vision of Contemporary Art’99” The Ueno Royal Museum / Tokyo
“Visions of the Body: Fashion or Invisible Corset” National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto / Kyoto, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo / Tokyo
“A Window, Inside and Outside” Kwangiu City Art Museum, Kwangju
“Melbourne International Biennale: Signs of Life” / Melbourne
“Fancy Dance-Contemporary Japanese Art After 1990” Art Sonje Museum / Kyongju, Art Sonje Center / Seoul.
1998
“Subterranean”(Gallery Nikko, Tokyo)
“TAIPEI Biennial Site of Desire”(Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei)
“Women Photographers from Japan,1864-1997. An Incomplete History” (Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester) (USA)
“Max Mara Japan Art Collection” Max Mara Japan / Tokyo
“Between the Unknown Straits Art Now in Japan and Korea” Meguro Museum of Art / Tokyo, The National Museum of Art / Osaka, The Korean Culture & Arts Foundation, Art Center / Seoul
TechnoTherapy -produced by Yasumasa Morimura-(Central Public Hall,Osaka)
“Tastes and Pursuit Japanese Art in the 1990s” National Museum, New Delhi / New Delhi,
Metropolitan Museum of Manila / Manila (Philipinas)
1997
“Lust und Leere”(Kunsthalle Wien) / Vienna, Arken Museum of Modern Art / Copenhagen, Kunsthalle zu Kiel / Kiel (Germany)
“Future Recollections” Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art – Kyoto
“Du Construit, du Paysage” Centre Regional d’Art Contemporain Languedoc – Roussillon / Sete (France)
“Moment Giinza” Forgfabriken/Stockholm (Sweden)
“Cities on the Move” Secession / Vienna and World Tour
“Legende” Centre Regional d’Art Contemporain Languedoc Roussillon / Sete (France)
1996
“Prospect ‘ 96” Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt / Frankfurt
“Art in Flux Oh, My “Japanese Landscapes’?” FUKUOKA ART MUSEUM / Fukuoka
1995
“Contemporary Art From Galleries ’95” (Osaka Contemporary Art Center, Osaka)
1994
“ART NOW ’94” (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Hyogo)