Shimabuku

Born 1969, Kobe, Japan.
Lives in Berlin, Germany.
 
Japanese artist Shimabuku brings to Liverpool his wonderful contemporary twist on the ancient worlds of legends, quests and mythical creatures. Shimabuku loves journeys, not so much for their endpoints as for the chance encounters along the way. He has undertaken a worldwide search for a legendary mermaid, embarked on a quest for deer in a part of Japan where there are no deer, taken a slow boat from London to Birmingham (allowing him plenty of time to make pickles on the way), and taken an octopus for a trip to a Tokyo fish market – and brought it safely home again. In all cases, it’s the many meetings along the way, and the many stories heard and told, that animate Shimabuku’s fascinating journeys.

Selected Solo Exhibitions
 
2005 Catching Octopus with Self-Made Ceramic Pots, Air de Paris, Paris, France
From High in the Sky to the Bottom of the Sea, Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, Spain

2004 Yoyo on the Moon, Maejima Art Centre/Yume-R, Okinawa, Japan
Born as a Box, Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK

2003 Watching the River Flow, Shugoarts, Tokyo, Japan
Swansea Jack Memorial Dog Swimming Competition, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, UK
 
2002 Frog’s Sky, Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Schwaz, Austria

2001 The Octopus Returns, Kobe Art Village Centre/Suma Rikyu Park, Kobe, Japan
Passing through the Rubber Band, Air de Paris, Paris, France


Selected Group Exhibitions

2006 Berlin/Tokyo, Neuen Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany                
How to Live Together, XXVII Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

2005 Circa Berlin, NIKOLAJ, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark
 
2004 MixMax, Artsonje Centre, Seoul, South Korea

2003 Time After Time, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
Utopia Station, 50th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
Biennale of Ceramics in Contemporary Art, 2nd edition, Riviera Ligure, Italy

2002 Radiodumb, Zero Arte Contemporanea, Piacenza, Italy

2001 The Beginning of Things, 6th Kitakyushu Biennale, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, Kitakyushu, Japan
Mega Wave, Yokohama 2001: International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Yokohama, Japan
Facts of Life, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
 
2000 Elysian Fields, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
As It Is, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
Transformer, Raum aktueller Kunst Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
Gift of Hope, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

Artist’s Texts

Shimabuku, SHIMABUKU 2001, Kobe: Kobe Art Village Centre, 2001

Shimabuku, Swansea Jack Memorial Dog Swimming Competition, Swansea: Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, 2003

Shimabuku, Cucumber Journey, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2004


Further Reading

Deborah Kermode, As It Is, exh. cat., Birmingham: Ikon Gallery, 2000, pp. 98–9

Duncan McLaren, ‘Artists on the Move’, contemporary (June/July/August 2002), pp. 56–61

Tom Morton, ‘Shimabuku’, Frieze, 86 (October 2004), pp. 164–5

Shimabuku, ‘Shimabuku Zero Gravity Art Center’, CUT (Tokyo: Rockin’ On), nos. 168–86 (August 2004–October 2005)

Shimabuku, ‘A Man who Walks to Universe’, in Rika Noguchi, Seeing Birds, Tokyo: P3 Art and Environment, 2001


http://www.diacenter.org/shimabuku/

http://www.shugoarts.com/en/shimabuku.html