Yoshinori Niwa

 

Yoshinori Niwa’s practice takes the form of social interventions, executed through performance, video and installation. Niwa deploys a nonsensical vernacular to examine socio-political realities, an artistic strategy whose roots can be traced to the post-war Japanese avant-garde. His works’ titles are self-explanatory, usually providing an exhaustive account of the performance contained within the film itself. Through the construction of absurd scenarios, Niwa exposes and evaluates the systems that drive contemporary society. 

 

Yoshinori Niwa (b.1982) graduated from Tama Art University’s Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts in 2005. Solo exhibitions include Why does humankind engage in economic activity?, Satoko Oe Contemporary, Tokyo, Japan (2023); Yoshinori Niwa: On Rehabilitation of Domination and Domain, Match Gallery/The Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, Slovenia (2021); Rehabilitation of Ancestors, Galerie Zimmermann Kratochwill, Graz, Austria (2020); We Unanimously Agree on a Plan that Nobody Has Asked For, Gallery X, Parco Museum, Tokyo, Japan (2019).  Group exhibitions include steirischer herbst ’24—Horror Patriae, Graz, Austria (2024); T2 Collection: Collecting? Connecting?, WHAT MUSEUM, Tokyo, JAPAN (2024); How to Hold Your Breath - 2024 Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (2024); 8th Yokohama Triennale: Wild Grass: Our Lives, Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama City, Japan (2024); Bucharest Biennale 10, Bucharest, Romania (2022); Five Exercises of Resistance, Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel (2022); Disposing of Hitler: Out of the Cellar, Into the Museum, The House of Austrian History, Vienna, Austria (2021); Taking my Thoughts for a Walk, Urbane Künste Ruhr, Dortmunder Kunstverein and Urbane Künste Ruhr, Dortmund, Germany (2021); Limited Vision, The National Forum of Music, Wrocław, Poland (2018). Niwa’s work is in major collections, including Kadist Art Foundation, Paris, France; San Francisco, CA, US; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan; Wrocław Contemporary Museum, Wrocław, Poland. Yoshinori Niwa lives and works in Vienna, Austria.