Now and Then, Japanese Photography and Art
Dec 5, 2015 – Jan 23, 2016
“Just when it seems that everything has been photographed, in every possible way, along comes a photographer whose work is so original that the medium is renewed. Such a photographer is Rinko Kawauchi, who makes simple, lyrical pictures, so fresh and unusual that they are difficult to describe or classify. Her images document everyday things, yet could not be described as documentary. They are generally light in tone, yet somehow dark in mood. They are almost hallucinatory, yet seem to capture something fundamental about the psychological mood of modern life.”
Garry Badger on Rinko Kawauchi’s book “Utatane” (Siesta), in: Martin Parr, Gerry Badger: The Photobook: A History, volume II, 2006, p. 316.
Rinko Kawauchi gilt als eine der bedeutendsten japanischen Künstlerinnen der Gegenwart. Sie lebt nach einem Aufenthalt in New York wieder in Tokio. In ihrem Studium am Seian Junior College of Art and Design entdeckte sie das Medium Fotografie als Ausdrucksform. Bislang hat sie 17 Fotobücher veröffentlicht, u.a. “Utatane” (2001), “Aila” (2004) und “Illuminance” (2011), deren Besonderheit darin liegt, das Ephemere des Alltags in etwas atemberaubend Neues zu verwandeln.
Im Zentrum von Rinko Kawauchis Arbeit stehen die gewöhnlichen Dinge und Szenen des Alltags. Durch die Wahl der Ausschnitte und Perspektiven und den subtilen Einsatz von natürlichem Licht in Kombination mit oft beinahe durchscheinenden Farben erhalten die Fotografien ihren besonderen Charakter. Rinko Kawauchi arbeitet in Serien, die in der Form von offenen Erzählungen, Poesie und Emotion mit der Darstellung von Vergänglichkeit und gelegentlicher Melancholie verbinden.
Aus den Fotografien spricht Rinko Kawauchis Faszination für eine flüchtige Schönheit, dem Werden und der Zerstörung, Leben und Tod. “From the black ocean comes the appearance of light and waves. It helps you imagine birth. I want imagination in the photographs I take. It’s like a prologue. You wonder, `What’s going on?´ You feel something is going to happen.” (Rinko Kawauchi)
Kawauchis neue Serie „Ametsuchi“, deren Titel übersetzt “Himmel” und “Erde” heißt, widmet sich dem Verhältnis der Menschheit zur Zeit. Weite Landschaftsbilder, die die traditionelle, kontrollierte Feldbrandrodung zeigen, demonstrieren die zerstörerische und verjüngende Kraft des Feuers. Abstrakte und ruhige Bilder von Sternenkonstellationen und religiösen Ritualen punktieren die Serie der Feuerbilder.
Die Künstlerin zeigt die Landschaften in erdigen Farben in einer „elementaren Einfachheit“, die an „Farbfelder von Rothko Gemälden“ erinnern (Florence Waters).
Im Zusammenspiel der Bilder von wiederkehrenden bäuerlichen und religiösen Ritualen und vom Sternenhimmel schafft Rinko Kawauchi eine Verbindung zwischen Vergangenheit und Gegenwart, der spirituellen Welt und der Realität, und zwischen Himmel und Erde.
Rinko Kawauchi’s Arbeiten wurden weltweit in Einzelausstellungen präsentiert, u.a. im Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, in der Gallery at Hermès, New York, im Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo und in der Foundation Cartier pour l’Art in Paris.
Fotografien der Künstlerin sind u. a. im Bestand des San Francisco Museum of Modern Art des Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Seit 2006 wird die Künstlerin von der GALERIE | PRISKA PASQUER in Europa vertreten.
Einzelausstellungen (Auswahl)
2023 Rinko Kawauchi, Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, Somerset House, UK
2023“Rinko Kawauchi: M/E ―On this sphere Endlessly interlinking” Shiga Museum of Art, Shiga
2022“Rinko Kawauchi – A Retrospective” Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
“Rinko Kawauchi: M/E ―On this sphere Endlessly interlinking” Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo / Shiga Museum of Art, Shiga
2021“Under the same sky” MA2 Gallery, Tokyo,
“as it is” Gallery Trax, Yamanashi,
“M/E” MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, “A DROP” TEATON, Ishikawa
2020 Rinko Kawauchi, as it is, POST, Tokyo / Raurauji Gallery, Osaka
2019 Rinko Kawauchi, When I was seven., agnès b. galerie boutique, Tokyo
2019 Rinko Kawauchi, Days about Atelier Yamanami, HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO (GALLERY 9.5), Kyoto
2018 Rinko Kawauchi, A New Day, POST, Tokyo and Orange, Kumamoto, Japan
2018 Rinko Kawauchi, Halo, foto-forum, Bolzano
2017 Rinko Kawauchi, Halo, POST, Tokyo / Morioka Shoten, Tokyo
2017 Rinko Kawauchi, Halo, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, The river embraced me, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, The rain of blessing, Gallery 916, Tokyo
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, The river embraced me, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, Someday for sure, Orange, Kumamoto / gallery trax, Yamanashi
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, Till The Day, NOMA t.d. store, Tokyo
2015 Rinko Kawauchi, Let’s sing a song our bodies know, Gucci,Tokyo
2015 Rinko Kawauchi, Illuminance, Kunst Haus Wien, Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna
2014 Rinko Kawauchi, Light and Shadow, Colissimo, Hyogo
2014 Rinko Kawauchi, “Rinko Kawauchi – Ametsuchi + Illuminance”, FotoMuseum, Antwerp
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Ametsuchi”, Galerie Priska Parquer, Cologne
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Light and Shadow”, KAGIYA Building 4F Gallery, Hamamatsu
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Ametsuchi”, Aperture Gallery, New York
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Light and Shadow”, msc Gallery, Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Ametsuchi”, Rose Gallery, Santa Monica
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Illuminance”, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
2012 Rinko Kawauchi, “Illuminance, Ametsuchi, Seeing Shadow”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
2011 Rinko Kawauchi, “Illuminance”, Gallery at Hermès, New York
2011 Rinko Kawauchi, “A Glimmer in Silence”, FO.KU.S Foto Kunst Stadtforum. Innsbruck, Austria
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “the eyes, the ears”, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “A Glimmer in Silence”, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne, Germany
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “Iridescence”, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “Rinko Kawauchi: Transient Wonders, Everyday Bliss － Photography, Video & Slides 2001-2009”, ARGOS Center for Art & Media, Brussels
2009 Rinko Kawauch, Mountain Fold Gallery, New York, USA
2009 Rinko Kawauchi, Rinko Kawauchi “a pause “, Gallery Trax, Yamanashi, Japan
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, Rinko Kawauchi presente par Antoine de Vilmorin 77 rue des Archives.Paris.75003, Paris, France
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, “Semear”, Foil Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, “Utatane”, Galeria Pepe Cobo, Madrid, Spain
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, “Cui Cui”, The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Sizuoka, Japan
2007 Rinko Kawauchi, MAM Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, Brasil
2007 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila + the eyes, the ears”, Fotografins Hus, Skeppsholmen, Sweden
2007 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila + the eyes, the ears”, Hasselblad Center, Göteborg, Sweden
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila + the eyes, the ears”, Fotografisk Center, Kopenhagen, Sweden
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne, Germany
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila, The eyes the ears”, Galleria CarlaSozzioni, Mailan, Italy
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, Photographers´ Gallery, London, GB
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, Quarter, Florenz, Italy
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila” Cohan and Lesile, New York, USA
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila”, Kanez Forest of Creation, Fukui, Japan
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
2004 Rinko Kawauchi, Cohan and Lesile, New York, USA
2004 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila”, California Museum of Photography, UC Riverside, USA
2004 Rinko Kawauchi, Rocket, Tokyo, Japan
2003 Rinko Kawauchi, Colette, Paris, France
1999 Rinko Kawauchi, “Hitoiki,” Light Works, Yokohama, Japan
Gruppenausstellungen (Auswahl)
2023 Collection Exhibition 1 It knows : When Forms Become Mind, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
2023 Wabi Sabi, Japanmuseum SieboldHuis, Netherlands
2023 I have not loved (enough or worked), The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), Australia
2022 Art & New Ecology, THE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM / The 5th Floor, Japan
2022 20th anniversary of opening Exhibition “Flower of Life”, Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Japan
2022 The Ateliers of Wonders, HOMO FABER, Italy
2022 Rinko Kawauchi and Yamanami Kobo, umi no schole, Japan
2021 Thailand Biennale 2021, Thailand
2021 Past and Present, Positions of Japanese Photography, Mönchehaus Museum Goslar, Germany
2020 Our Duty is to Experiment – 20 years Galerie PRISKA PASQUER, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne
2020 The Sense of Wonder into another garden, Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Mishima, Japan
2020 Timeless Conversations 2020: Voices from Japanese Art of the Past and Present, The National Art Center, Tokyo
2019 Lianzhou Foto Festival 15th Edition, China
2019 TOP Collection, Reading Images: The Time of Photography, TOP MUSEUM, Tokyo
2019 Miffy’s Field of Flowers: The World of Dick Bruna Picture Books, Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Mishima, Japan
2019 CAMK Collection Exhibition, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan
2018 TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2018, National Portrait Gallery, London
2018 Incognito: The Eye in Search, The 6th SIPF 2018 Festival, Singapore
2018 25th Anniversary, Gallery Trax, Yamanashi
2018 A Beautiful Moment, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam
2018 Asama International Photo Festival, Nagano
2018 A Matter of Light, PALAZZO REALE, Milan
2018 Forever (and again), IZU PHOTO MUSEUM, Shizuoka
2017 Japanorama. A new vision on art since 1970, Centre Pompidou-Metz
2017 Prix Pictet, V&A Museum, London (Touring CAMERA, Turino and other places)
2017 Seize the Uncertain Day, Chinretsukan Gallery (The University Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts), Tokyo
2017 Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, URANO, Tokyo
2016 Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now, SF MOMA, San Francisco
2016 Genius loci – The Higashikawa Awards –, Towada Art Center, Aomori
2015 NOW AND THEN, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne
2015 The Younger Generation: Contemporary Japanese Photography, The Getty Center, Los Angeles
2015 In the Wake Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2014 BIWAKO Biennal, Shiga
2014 Paraty en Foco en festa, Brazil
2014 Landskrona Fotofestival 2014, Landskrona, Sweden
2014 Photography will be, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
2014 Gift, Exhibition with Terri Weifenbach, IMA gallery, Tokyo
2014 “Rinko Kawauchi×NOMA t.d. ” gallery trax, Yamanashi / TRAUMARIS, Tokyo / rizm, Hyogo
2014 VIVID MEMORIES, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris
2013 Exhibition of the 29th Higashikawa Award Winners, Higashikawa Bunka Gallery, Hokkaido
2013 The Aesthetics of Photography – Five Elements Collection Exhibition 2013, Tokyo
2013 Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
2013 Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2012 Daegu Photo Biennale 2012, Daegu, Korea
2012 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012, The Photographers’ Gallery, London; c/o 2012 Berlin, Berlin
2012 To Wander a Garden, The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuoka, Japan
2012 Visible / Invisible, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
2011 “Mizu no Oto” (The sound of water). Fotografia. Festival Internazionale di Roma
2011 “The Eye is a lonely Hunter”, 4. Fotofestival Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg, Germany
201 “Illuminance”, Le Mois de La Photo à Montréal, Canada
2010 “Murmuration” (Strange & Familiar: Three Views of Brighton). Brighton Photo Biennale Brighton, England
2009 “Touch the World” Borderless Art Museum NO-MA, Shiga, Japan
2009 “Photography Now China, Japan, Korea” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
2009 “FotoFrafia Festival International of Roma” Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy
2009 “Vendure!: New Acquisitions and Related Works of the Collectilon” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
2008 “Blooming Brazil-Japan Where you are” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
2008 “Urban Future #2″ Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2007 Curator’s Choice ’07: Mueseum Dialogues” Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of photography, Tokyo, Japan
2006 YOSHITOMO NARA ＋ graf A to Z, Aomori, Japan
2006 Photo Espana, Madrid, Spain
2006 “Collection of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain”, Museum Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2004 “AILA & Utatane” Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France
2004 “Lonely Planet” Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Center, Ibaraki, Japan
2003 “Love Planet”, The 41st Okayama City Arts Festival Program (with Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Jeanne Dunning, Tatsuo Miyajima and Rikrit Tiravanija et al), Okayama, Japan
2003 “HOPE” Laforet Museum,Tokyo, Japan
2003 “FOIL” Little More Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2002 “Kimura Ihei Award Winnes Exhibition” Minolta Photo Space Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
2000 “Hinata Kanata” Landmark Tower Gallery, Kanagawa. Japan
Auszeichnungen
2013 The 29th Higashikawa Award, Domestic Photographer Award
2013 Art Encourage Prize for New Artist from the Ministry of Education
2012 The Royal Photographic Society: Honorary Fellowship
2009 25th Annual Infinity Award/ Category Art, by the International Center of Photography ICP, New York, USA
2002 Winner of the 27th Kimura Ihei Award, Japan
2002 The Photographic Society of Japan, the Rookie of the Year award, Japan
1997 Grand Prix Prize, The Guardian Garden’s 9th Hitotsuboten Exhibition, Japan
Rinko Kawauchi was born in Shiga in 1972 and became interested in photography while she was studying at Seian Junior College of Art and Design. As is customary with Japanese photographers she began her career as an artist by publishing her work in her own photography books. In the year 2001 she became famous over night in Japan after the simultaneous publication of the three photography books “Hanako” (named after a disabled girl), “Utatane” (siesta) and “Hanabi” (fireworks). In 2002 she received the prestigious “Kimura Ihei Award” for two of the books. In 2004 she published “Aila” (family), in 2005 “the eyes, the ears” (a book about the senses) and “Cui Cui” (which observes the lives of her grandparents over a period of thirteen years). Further publications by Rinko Kawauchi, which should be mentioned, are the photography books “Everyday as a child” accompanying the film “Nobody Knows” by director Kore-Eda, as well as “No War”, a collaboration with Yoshitomo Nara about Afghanistan and her recently published diaries “Rinko Nikki I + II”. Her recent books are “Murmuration” for the Brighton Photo Biennial 2010 and as a major publication “Illuminance“, Aperture, New York. To date Rinko Kawauchi has published 12 photography books.
In her native Japan the photographer Rinko Kawauchi has become one of the most celebrated photographers of her generation. After appearing in several museum exhibitions and festivals in Europe (among others “Rencontres de la Photographie”, Arles; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam: Photographers’ Gallery, London) the Metopolitan Museum of Photography in Tokyo is preparing a major exhibition about the artist for May 2012. Rinko Kawauchi’s work focuses on ordinary things and everyday situations. Her photographs attain their specific quality through her use of cropping and choice of perspective as well as the subtle use of natural light in combination with often virtually transparent colors. Rinko Kawauchi works in series, which, in the form of open narratives, combine poetry and emotion with representations of mortality and occasional melancholy. The subject of Rinko Kawauchi’s best-known work “Aila” (which means “family” in Turkish) is the depiction of the essence of life: animals, plants and people are shown in a sequence assembled by free association, which also includes both birth and death. Rinko Kawauchi’s fascination in fleeting beauty, the subjects of creation and destruction, and life and death are communicated in her images. “From the black ocean comes the appearance of light and waves. It helps you imagine birth. I want imagination in the photographs I take. It’s like a prologue. You wonder, ‘What’s going on?’ You feel something is going to happen.” (Rinko Kawauchi)
XXX
Rinko Kawauchi (*1972)
“Just when it seems that everything has been photographed, in every possible way, along comes a photographer whose work is so original that the medium is renewed. Such a photographer is Rinko Kawauchi, who makes simple, lyrical pictures, so fresh and unusual that they are difficult to describe or classify. Her images document everyday things, yet could not be described as documentary. They are generally light in tone, yet somehow dark in mood. They are almost hallucinatory, yet seem to capture something fundamental about the psychological mood of modern life.”
Garry Badger on Rinko Kawauchi’s book “Utatane” (Siesta), in: Martin Parr, Gerry Badger: The Photobook: A History, volume II, 2006, p. 316.
In her native country the Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi has become one of the most celebrated photographers of her generation. After appearing in several museum exhibitions and festivals in Europe (among others “Rencontres de la Photographie”, Arles; Fondation Cartier, Paris; Huis Marseille, Amsterdam: Photographers’ Gallery, London) the Metopolitan Museum of Photography in Tokyo is preparing a major exhibition about the artist for May 2012.
Rinko Kawauchi’s work focuses on ordinary things and everyday situations. Her photographs attain their specific quality through her use of cropping and choice of perspective as well as the subtle use of natural light in combination with often virtually transparent colours. Rinko Kawauchi works in series, which, in the form of open narratives, combine poetry and emotion with representations of mortality and occasional melancholy.
In her series entitled “Utatane” (2001), a Japanese word that defines a state between wakefulness and sleep – dozing perhaps,the artist demonstrates a concentrated intentness on what she calls “the little voices that have been whispering to her since childhood”. These are the source upon which she draws, the intimate origin of a world described here according to a highly personal aesthetic: Utatane re-creates a fragmentary and fleeting world in which every detail relates to notions of birth, life, death and the passage of time.
Whatever her mood, Rinko Kawauchi says that taking pictures is as natural to her as drinking tea: she seizes upon anything that strikes her; insects, children, animals, scraps of ordinary life, tiny scraps of life that embody – more often than not – the ephemeral. Inexhaustibly, her work constructs a new kind of inventory, the unacknowledged purpose of which is to emphasize the connections between human beings and the natural or animal world. Her subject-matter is, in appearance, banal: a pan with eggs to be fried, worn rope, a child seen from behind, a dead bug and so on. But there is always another dimension. Rinko Kawauchi’s eye feeds off a wealth of everyday images in order to display poetic force – a process which may sound hubristic but actually conducted with characteristically Japanese discretion.
The subject of Rinko Kawauchi’s work “Aila” (which means “family” in Turkish) is the depiction of the essence of life: animals, plants and people are shown in a sequence assembled by free association, which also includes both birth and death. Rinko Kawauchi’s fascination in fleeting beauty, the subjects of creation and destruction, and life and death are communicated in her images.
“From the black ocean comes the appearance of light and waves. It helps you imagine birth. I want imagination in the photographs I take. It’s like a prologue. You wonder, ‘What’s going on?’ You feel something is going to happen.” (Rinko Kawauchi)
Kawauchi’s series, “Ametsuchi” – which translates as “heaven” and “earth” – explores how mankind relates to time. Vast landscape pictures in colours depict the traditional, controlled burning of farmland, demonstrating the destructive yet rejuvenating power of fire. The series of fire pictures are littered with abstract and calm images of stellar constellations and religious rituals.
In the earthy colours of her landscapes, the artist creates an “elementary simplicity […] like fields of colour in a Rothko painting” (Florence Waters).
Interwoven with the images of recurring agricultural and religious rituals and starry skies, Rinko Kawauchi conjures up a connection between the past and the present, the spiritual world and reality, between Heaven and Earth
Recently showed her first major exhibition in Japan in six years, showcasing the essence of Kawauchi’s oeuvre through work from the past decade combined with never-before-seen images from her archives. M/E, the main subject of the exhibition and inspiration for its title, is a new series Kawauchi began shooting in 2019. The letters stand for “Mother” and “Earth,” combining to form both “Mother Earth” and “Me.” At a glance, the series’ images of Iceland’s volcanoes and ice floes and Hokkaido’s snowy landscapes may seem distant and unrelated to the everyday scenes from the COVID-19 pandemic that accompany them in the series. However, both types of image depict events now taking place on the planet we live on, and Kawauchi’s artistry alerts us to the connection between them. The exhibition invited the viewer to reconsider a range of questions about the workings of human life and our relationship with nature.
Biographical Summary
Rinko Kawauchi was born in Shiga in 1972 and became interested in photography while she was studying at Seian Junior College of Art and Design. As is customary with Japanese photographers she began her career as an artist by publishing her work in her own photography books.
In the year 2001 she became famous over night in Japan after the simultaneous publication of the three photography books “Hanako” (named after a disabled girl), “Utatane” (siesta) and “Hanabi” (fireworks).
In 2002 she received the prestigious “Kimura Ihei Award” for two of the books. In 2004 she published “Aila” (family), in 2005 “the eyes, the ears” (a book about the senses) and “Cui Cui” (which observes the lives of her grandparents over a period of thirteen years). Further publications by Rinko Kawauchi, which should be mentioned, are the photography books “Every day as a child” accompanying the film “Nobody Knows” by director Kore-Eda, as well as “No War”, a collaboration with Yoshitomo Nara about Afghanistan, her diaries “Rinko Nikki I + II” and “Murmuration” for the Brighton Photo Biennial 2010. Her recent publications are „Illuminance“, published 2011 by Aperture, New York and “Light and Shadow”. To date Rinko Kawauchi has published 17 photography books.
Solo Exhibitions (selection)
2023 Rinko Kawauchi, Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition, Somerset House, UK
2023“Rinko Kawauchi: M/E ―On this sphere Endlessly interlinking” Shiga Museum of Art, Shiga
2022“Rinko Kawauchi – A Retrospective” Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
“Rinko Kawauchi: M/E ―On this sphere Endlessly interlinking” Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo / Shiga Museum of Art, Shiga
2021“Under the same sky” MA2 Gallery, Tokyo,
“as it is” Gallery Trax, Yamanashi,
“M/E” MITSUKOSHI CONTEMPORARY GALLERY, Tokyo, “A DROP” TEATON, Ishikawa
2020 Rinko Kawauchi, as it is, POST, Tokyo / Raurauji Gallery, Osaka
2019 Rinko Kawauchi, When I was seven., agnès b. galerie boutique, Tokyo
2019 Rinko Kawauchi, Days about Atelier Yamanami, HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO (GALLERY 9.5), Kyoto
2018 Rinko Kawauchi, A New Day, POST, Tokyo and Orange, Kumamoto, Japan
2018 Rinko Kawauchi, Halo, foto-forum, Bolzano
2017 Rinko Kawauchi, Halo, POST, Tokyo / Morioka Shoten, Tokyo
2017 Rinko Kawauchi, Halo, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, The river embraced me, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, The rain of blessing, Gallery 916, Tokyo
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, The river embraced me, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, Someday for sure, Orange, Kumamoto / gallery trax, Yamanashi
2016 Rinko Kawauchi, Till The Day, NOMA t.d. store, Tokyo
2015 Rinko Kawauchi, Let’s sing a song our bodies know, Gucci,Tokyo
2015 Rinko Kawauchi, Illuminance, Kunst Haus Wien, Museum Hundertwasser, Vienna
2014 Rinko Kawauchi, Light and Shadow, Colissimo, Hyogo
2014 Rinko Kawauchi, “Rinko Kawauchi – Ametsuchi + Illuminance”, FotoMuseum, Antwerp
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Ametsuchi”, Galerie Priska Parquer, Cologne
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Light and Shadow”, KAGIYA Building 4F Gallery, Hamamatsu
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Ametsuchi”, Aperture Gallery, New York
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Light and Shadow”, msc Gallery, Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts, Kyoto
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Ametsuchi”, Rose Gallery, Santa Monica
2013 Rinko Kawauchi, “Illuminance”, Christophe Guye Galerie, Zurich
2012 Rinko Kawauchi, “Illuminance, Ametsuchi, Seeing Shadow”, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
2011 Rinko Kawauchi, “Illuminance”, Gallery at Hermès, New York
2011 Rinko Kawauchi, “A Glimmer in Silence”, FO.KU.S Foto Kunst Stadtforum. Innsbruck, Austria
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “the eyes, the ears”, Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “A Glimmer in Silence”, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne, Germany
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “Iridescence”, Meessen De Clercq, Brussels
2010 Rinko Kawauchi, “Rinko Kawauchi: Transient Wonders, Everyday Bliss － Photography, Video & Slides 2001-2009”, ARGOS Center for Art & Media, Brussels
2009 Rinko Kawauch, Mountain Fold Gallery, New York, USA
2009 Rinko Kawauchi, Rinko Kawauchi “a pause “, Gallery Trax, Yamanashi, Japan
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, Rinko Kawauchi presente par Antoine de Vilmorin 77 rue des Archives.Paris.75003, Paris, France
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, “Semear”, Foil Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, “Utatane”, Galeria Pepe Cobo, Madrid, Spain
2008 Rinko Kawauchi, “Cui Cui”, The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Sizuoka, Japan
2007 Rinko Kawauchi, MAM Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, Brasil
2007 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila + the eyes, the ears”, Fotografins Hus, Skeppsholmen, Sweden
2007 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila + the eyes, the ears”, Hasselblad Center, Göteborg, Sweden
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila + the eyes, the ears”, Fotografisk Center, Kopenhagen, Sweden
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne, Germany
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila, The eyes the ears”, Galleria CarlaSozzioni, Mailan, Italy
2006 Rinko Kawauchi, Photographers´ Gallery, London, GB
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, Quarter, Florenz, Italy
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila” Cohan and Lesile, New York, USA
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila”, Kanez Forest of Creation, Fukui, Japan
2005 Rinko Kawauchi, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris, France
2004 Rinko Kawauchi, Cohan and Lesile, New York, USA
2004 Rinko Kawauchi, “Aila”, California Museum of Photography, UC Riverside, USA
2004 Rinko Kawauchi, Rocket, Tokyo, Japan
2003 Rinko Kawauchi, Colette, Paris, France
1999 Rinko Kawauchi, “Hitoiki,” Light Works, Yokohama, Japan
Group Exhibitions (selection)
2023 Collection Exhibition 1 It knows : When Forms Become Mind, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa
2023 Wabi Sabi, Japanmuseum SieboldHuis, Netherlands
2023 I have not loved (enough or worked), The Art Gallery of Western Australia (AGWA), Australia
2022 Art & New Ecology, THE UNIVERSITY ART MUSEUM / The 5th Floor, Japan
2022 20th anniversary of opening Exhibition “Flower of Life”, Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Japan
2022 The Ateliers of Wonders, HOMO FABER, Italy
2022 Rinko Kawauchi and Yamanami Kobo, umi no schole, Japan
2021 Thailand Biennale 2021, Thailand
2021 Past and Present, Positions of Japanese Photography, Mönchehaus Museum Goslar, Germany
2020 Our Duty is to Experiment – 20 years Galerie PRISKA PASQUER, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne
2020 The Sense of Wonder into another garden, Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Mishima, Japan
2020 Timeless Conversations 2020: Voices from Japanese Art of the Past and Present, The National Art Center, Tokyo
2019 Lianzhou Foto Festival 15th Edition, China
2019 TOP Collection, Reading Images: The Time of Photography, TOP MUSEUM, Tokyo
2019 Miffy’s Field of Flowers: The World of Dick Bruna Picture Books, Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Mishima, Japan
2019 CAMK Collection Exhibition, Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan
2018 TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC PORTRAIT PRIZE 2018, National Portrait Gallery, London
2018 Incognito: The Eye in Search, The 6th SIPF 2018 Festival, Singapore
2018 25th Anniversary, Gallery Trax, Yamanashi
2018 A Beautiful Moment, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam
2018 Asama International Photo Festival, Nagano
2018 A Matter of Light, PALAZZO REALE, Milan
2018 Forever (and again), IZU PHOTO MUSEUM, Shizuoka
2017 Japanorama. A new vision on art since 1970, Centre Pompidou-Metz
2017 Prix Pictet, V&A Museum, London (Touring CAMERA, Turino and other places)
2017 Seize the Uncertain Day, Chinretsukan Gallery (The University Museum, Tokyo University of the Arts), Tokyo
2017 Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, URANO, Tokyo
2016 Japanese Photography from Postwar to Now, SF MOMA, San Francisco
2016 Genius loci – The Higashikawa Awards –, Towada Art Center, Aomori
2015 NOW AND THEN, Galerie Priska Pasquer, Cologne
2015 The Younger Generation: Contemporary Japanese Photography, The Getty Center, Los Angeles
2015 In the Wake Japanese Photographers Respond to 3/11, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
2014 BIWAKO Biennal, Shiga
2014 Paraty en Foco en festa, Brazil
2014 Landskrona Fotofestival 2014, Landskrona, Sweden
2014 Photography will be, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
2014 Gift, Exhibition with Terri Weifenbach, IMA gallery, Tokyo
2014 “Rinko Kawauchi×NOMA t.d. ” gallery trax, Yamanashi / TRAUMARIS, Tokyo / rizm, Hyogo
2014 VIVID MEMORIES, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris
2013 Exhibition of the 29th Higashikawa Award Winners, Higashikawa Bunka Gallery, Hokkaido
2013 The Aesthetics of Photography – Five Elements Collection Exhibition 2013, Tokyo
2013 Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
2013 Fotografia Europea, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2012 Daegu Photo Biennale 2012, Daegu, Korea
2012 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012, The Photographers’ Gallery, London; c/o 2012 Berlin, Berlin
2012 To Wander a Garden, The Vangi Sculpture Garden Museum, Shizuoka, Japan
2012 Visible / Invisible, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
2011 “Mizu no Oto” (The sound of water). Fotografia. Festival Internazionale di Roma
2011 “The Eye is a lonely Hunter”, 4. Fotofestival Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg, Germany
201 “Illuminance”, Le Mois de La Photo à Montréal, Canada
2010 “Murmuration” (Strange & Familiar: Three Views of Brighton). Brighton Photo Biennale Brighton, England
2009 “Touch the World” Borderless Art Museum NO-MA, Shiga, Japan
2009 “Photography Now China, Japan, Korea” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, USA
2009 “FotoFrafia Festival International of Roma” Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Roma, Italy
2009 “Vendure!: New Acquisitions and Related Works of the Collectilon” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
2008 “Blooming Brazil-Japan Where you are” Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Aichi, Japan
2008 “Urban Future #2″ Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2007 Curator’s Choice ’07: Mueseum Dialogues” Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of photography, Tokyo, Japan
2006 YOSHITOMO NARA ＋ graf A to Z, Aomori, Japan
2006 Photo Espana, Madrid, Spain
2006 “Collection of the Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain”, Museum Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2004 “AILA & Utatane” Rencontres de la Photographie, Arles, France
2004 “Lonely Planet” Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Center, Ibaraki, Japan
2003 “Love Planet”, The 41st Okayama City Arts Festival Program (with Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller, Jeanne Dunning, Tatsuo Miyajima and Rikrit Tiravanija et al), Okayama, Japan
2003 “HOPE” Laforet Museum,Tokyo, Japan
2003 “FOIL” Little More Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2002 “Kimura Ihei Award Winnes Exhibition” Minolta Photo Space Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan
2000 “Hinata Kanata” Landmark Tower Gallery, Kanagawa. Japan
Awards
2013 The 29th Higashikawa Award, Domestic Photographer Award
2013 Art Encourage Prize for New Artist from the Ministry of Education
2012 The Royal Photographic Society: Honorary Fellowship
2009 25th Annual Infinity Award/ Category Art, by the International Center of Photography ICP, New York, USA
2002 Winner of the 27th Kimura Ihei Award, Japan
2002 The Photographic Society of Japan, the Rookie of the Year award, Japan
1997 Grand Prix Prize, The Guardian Garden’s 9th Hitotsuboten Exhibition, Japan
RINKO KAWAUCHI, Illuminance at Kunst Haus Wien
Mar 20 – Jul 10, 2015
RINKO KAWAUCHI, Ametsuchi
Dec 6, 2013 – Mar 8, 2014
RINKO KAWAUCHI, FoMu Antwerp
Mar 21 – Jun 6, 2014
RINKO KAWAUCHI, A Glimmer in Silence
Sep 4 – Nov 2, 2010
RINKO KAWAUCHI, “The eyes, the ears” at Kunstverein Augsburg, Germany
Oct 17 – Dec 19, 2010
RINKO KAWAUCHI, AILA
Sep 22, 2006 – Feb 28, 2007
PARIS PHOTO 2004
Nov 11 – Nov 14, 2004