Ocula Conversation Hito Steyerl: How To Build a Sustainable Art World 'A Picture of War is Not War', we read in Hito Steyerl's iconic film November (2004), an essayistic Super 8 film tackling the definition of terrorism constructed around the figure of the artist's best friend Andrea Wolf, who was killed as a terrorist in 1998 in Eastern Anatolia after she joined the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party). Mixing documentary...
Ocula Report Aichi to Okayama: Art in Japan Looks to the Future 11 Oct 2019 : Stephanie Bailey for Ocula There has been a flurry of triennial and biennial art activity in Japan this year. The Aichi Triennale opened in Nagoya this August, sparking a national debate about the shutting down of a display of formerly censored works—the result of public backlash against a burnt image of Emperor Hirohito and a statue commemorating the women forced into...
Ocula Insight | Video Hans Hartung and Art Informel at Mazzoleni London (1 October 2019-18 January 2020) presents key works by the French-German painter while highlighting his connection with artists active in Paris during the 50s and 60s. In this video, writer and historian Alan Montgomery discusses Hartung's practice and its legacy.Born in Leipzig in 1904, Hans...
Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is a Tokyo-based photographer. Araki completed his studies at Chiba University's Department of Photography, Painting and Engineering with a focus on the study of film and photography. His photographic project Satchin earned him the prestigious Taiyo Award in 1964, shortly after he joined the advertising agency Dentsu, where he worked until 1972.
At Dentsu he met his wife Yoko, to whom he paid homage in Sentimental Journey, a photographic record of their honeymoon published in 1971. Eros and thanatos (sex and death) has been a central theme in Araki's work; an abiding fascination with female genitalia and women's bodies in Japanese bondage, flowers, food, his cat, faces and Tokyo street scenes.
Araki was a recipient of the Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Arts (Austrian Embassy, 2008) and the 54th Mainichi Art Award (2012).
Nobuyoshi Araki is arguably Japan's greatest living photographer. His inexhaustible creative energy is attested to by the more than 450 books he has published in the last four decades.
Araki's exhibitions go back to 1965, when he exhibited at Shinjuku Station Building, Tokyo, Japan, his first show called Satchin and His Brother Mabo. From then on Araki's work has been exhibited permanently and worldwide through the years.
Ocula Report Berlin, Boners and Brecht 7 Jun 2016 : Diana d'Arenberg for Ocula Apparently my timing sucks. One week too late for Berlin Gallery Weekend, and one month too early for the Berlin Biennale. ‘You should have been here last weekend for Berlin Gallery Weekend!’ a Berliner friend exclaimed. ‘Everyone was having orgies at Soho House! It was the best art world networking!’ I shifted...
Ocula Report Japan Focus: Three Tokyo Exhibitions 27 Nov 2014 : Becca Voelcker for Ocula I walk along Tokyo’s Ginza shopping street towards the basement art gallery of Shiseido’s store, where three series of recent works by renowned Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki are on display in Nobuyoshi Araki Ōjō Shashū: Photography for the Afterlife — EasternSky. It’s one of those autumn days when the clouds...
Ocula Conversation Stephen Mccoubrey Co-curator, UBS Art Collection, London With an extraordinary collection of paintings, photographs, drawings, sculptures and video by some of the world’s major artists from 1960 onwards, UBS is recognized as having one of the most important corporate collections of contemporary art in the world. Stephen McCoubrey has been co-curator of that collection since 1999 and is...
Related Press How Ed van der Elsken Influenced Other Artists The New York Times : 3 March 2017 Ed van der Elsken may not have become a household name, but his art has influenced a broad range of photographers, filmmakers and other contemporary artists. Here are three who expressed a direct connection to his art.Nan GoldinThe contemporary American photographer Nan Goldin, known for her deeply personal snapshot-like portraits, and her...
Related Press 'Masters of Japanese Photography': Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts ArtAsiaPacific : 22 February 2017 Photographs by three of Japan's most prolific living artists from the 20th century were recently on view in Masters of Japanese Photography, at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA) in Norwich, England. This was the first time Nobuyoshi Araki, Eikoh Hosoe and Kikuji Kawada had their works displayed in the east of England, although all three...
Related Press Tokyo: photogenic to its very core The Japan Times : 14 December 2016 With Tokyo being the object of so many excellent photographers’ interest over the last 150 odd years, it’s entirely legitimate that the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum should be bringing it home. What’s on display in the first exhibition, displayed on the third floor, is a selection from the museum’s world-class permanent...
Related Press Eros, Life and Death: The photography of Japan's Nobuyoshi Araki at Musée Guimet, Paris Art Radar Journal : 19 August 2016 With over 400 photographs taken between 1965 and 2016, Araki is one of the most important and comprehensive surveys dedicated to the influential Japanese photographer.Launched on 13 April, Araki runs at the Musée National des Arts Asiatiques–Guimet (MNAAG) in Paris until 5 September 2016, and marks one of the major...
