Photo above left 《Relation ‐ Education・Building Blocks and Praying Mantis》Photo above right《Relation ‐ Education・Anatomy Class》Photo bottom right《Relation ‐ Education・Chalk and slide》Photo bottom left《Relation ‐ Education・Math Class》

From something still familiar such as a microscope to tambourine to something no longer in use such as mimeograph files, things that belong to a school are painted in the colour of the blackboard.

Photo by Kioku Keizo

Kawaguchi Tatsuo

Born in Hyogo in 1940. After graduating from Tama Art University, Department of Painting in 1962, he stayed in Europe and America from 1975 to 1976 as a young artist supported by a government grant from the Agency for Cultural Affairs. He has been pursuing creative activities highlighting “what can be seen” and “what can’t be seen” and their relations. His artworks remind us of the materiality, time and emptiness, and life and death of things regardless of whether they are visible or invisible.

＜Major solo exhibitions＞
-2021 “Artist Voice I: Tatsuo Kawaguchi non-respiring,” Keio University Art Centre, Tokyo
-2019
“Compass of Time,” Yukihisa Isobe Memorial Echigo Tsumari Kiyotsu Soko Museum, Niigata
“Tatsuo Kawaguchi : Relation- Yusuke Nakahara, or Critique as Creation,” Art Front Gallery, Tokyo
2018 “Chinokoya,” Kurobe City Art Museum, Toyama
2015 “Manuscript form, in between a book,” NADiff a/p/a/r/t, Tokyo
“Darkness Time,” MUSEUM HAUS KASUYA, Kanagawa
“Near the Coelacanth,” Coelacanth Mohri Bushiro Memorial, Toyama
2014 “The seed that became a pearl, the seed that became a sound,” Gallery Monma, Hokkaido
-2013 “In the darkness and in the light,” Shigeru Yokota Gallery, Tokyo
-2012 “Let There Be Light! Tatsuo Kawaguchi:World after 3/11,” Iwaki City Art Museum, Fukushima
-2010 “Kawaguchi Tatsuo:The Spiral Time,” KAKE Museum of Art, Okayama
-2009 “Kawaguchi Tatsuo:Language,Time,Life,” The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo / Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya
-2008 “Voyage of Time,” Nizayama Forest Art Museum, Toyama
-2007 “Tatsuo Kawaguchi:The Invisible and The Visible,” Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art / Nagoya City Art Museum
-2006 “Underground Time,” MACA GALLERY, Tokyo
-2005 “Time within Time,” Aomori Contemporary Art Center, Aomori
-2004 “Relation-Flottage of Time,” Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya
-2003 “Earth/Water/Plant,” HillsaideForum, Tokyo
“Japan Contemporary Art – Kawaguchi Tatsuo,” Busan Museum of Art, Korea
-1999 “Tatsuo Kawaguchi:Relation-Kyoto,” Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Kyoto
-1998 “Kawaguchi Tatsuo 1990-1998:Sealed Time,” Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki
-1997 “Relation-Tatsuo Kawaguchi,” Chiba City Museum of Art, Chiba
-1996 “Kawaguchi Tatsuo – Relation-Seed, farm tools” Hillside Gallery, Tokyo（’94, ’93, ’92, ’89, ’81）
-1990 “Today’s Artist -V-’90 Tatsuo Kawaguchi,” The Museum of Modern Art, Kanagawa
-1981 “Tatsuo Kawaguchi,” Art Front Gallery, Tokyo

＜Major Group Exhibitions＞
-2017 SUZU 2017 OKU NOTO Triennale, Ishikawa
-2013 “Two years later. Nature and art and requiem,” The Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki
-2012 “Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2012,” Niigata (2003, 2000) -2010 “Setouchi International Art Festival 2010,” Shodoshima, Kagawa.
-2004 “Group “i”,” Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo
“Traces: Body and Idea in Contemporary Art,” The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
-1994 “Japanese Art after 1945: Screan against the sky,” Guggenheim Museum Soho, New York / San Francisco Museum of ModernArt / Center for the Arts at Yerba Buena Gardens, USA
-1989 “Magiciens de la terre,” Centre Georges Pompidou(Musée national d’art moderne), La Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, France
“Japan’89 Japanese Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Ghent, Belgium
-1986 “Japon des Avant Gardes,” Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
-1973 “12 Bienal de Sao Paulo,” Brazil.
“8e Biennale de Paris,” Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris and Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
-1970 “Between Man and Matter – The 10th International Art Exhibition of Japan (Tokyo Biennale 1970) ,”Tokyo Metropolitan Art Gallery, Kyoto City Museum of Art, Aichi Museum of Art,Fukuoka Prefectural Culture Center