DOWNLOAD_CV(January, 2026)
Curriculum Vitae
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
2025 M.F.A. Intermedia Art, Tokyo University of Arts
2024 Exchange École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris
2022 Completed Art to school, Tokyo
2015 B.A. Faculty of Business and Commerce, Kansai University, Osaka
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 SWEPT ALONG, BUT NOT SWEPT AWAY / CourtyardHIROO, Tokyo
2020 Suchness / JOINT GALLERY HARAJUKU, Tokyo
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Guided by the light of the convenience store / re_noma, Gunma, Japan
2025 Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators Presentation Exhibition / TODA HALL & CONFERENCE TOKYO
2025 72nd Tokyo University of the Arts Graduation Works Exhibitions / University Art Museum, Tokyo
2024 GOOD GOOD HUMOR DAY DAY ART / IN THE RACK ROOM, Berlin
2023 CAF Contemporary Art Award Finalist Exhibition / Daikanyama Hillside Forum, Tokyo
2023 TOKYO GEIDAI ARTFES 2023 (Online view)
2023 Itsumono Sono aida / Shinyurakucho#Sonoaida, Tokyo
2023 EXHIBITION WORK IN PROGRESS 2023 / Tokyo University of Arts, Ibaraki, Japan
2023 ON LIMITS / Shinyurakucho#Sonoaida, Tokyo
2022 A-TOM ART AWARD 2022 Vernacular and Dawn / CourtyardHIROO, Tokyo
2022 100人10 / Tokyo Midtown, Tokyo
2022 On My Way – Sharing Experiences / Under the Mango Tree, Berlin
2022 ATLAS 2022 / Tokyo University of Arts, Ibaraki, Japan
2021 Art Festival Sumida Mukojima EXPO / Tokyo
2021 GRADATION / Shibuya Parco, Tokyo
2021 artwork fukuoka / Whask, Fukuoka, Japan
2021 AIR 1/2F / BnA Alter Museum, Kyoto
2021 Born New Art / Shibuya Scramble Square, Tokyo
RESIDENCY PROGRAMMES
2026(upcoming) MASS MoCA Residency, Full General Fellowship
2025 Singapore Art Museum, SAM Residency
2025 Around, Buzz Culture / GO_2025, Goriza, Italy
2023 Shinyurakucho#Sonoaida, A-TOM ART AWARD 2022 Extra Prize, Tokyo
2021 BnA Alter Museum, Kyoto
GRANTS
2026 Toshiaki Ogasawara Memorial Foundation, Travel Grant
2025 EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee, Mobility Support Program
2025 Kawashima Mirai Culture Art Foundation
2025 Arts Council Kanazawa
2024 Project to Support Emerging Media Arts Creators（Agency for Cultural Affairs）
2022 MICRO ART WORK-ATION, Around Yoshiwara Shopping Street, Fuji City, Shizuoka
2020 Support for Continuing Cultural and Artistic Activities（Agency for Cultural Affairs）
AWARDS
2025 Next Young Artist Award, Art & New Media Division, Excellence Award
2023 CAF Contemporary Art Award, Shortlist
2022 A-TOM ART AWARD 2022, Sonoaida Award
RESEARCH & COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
2025- D-LAB, Japan Tobacco Inc., ‘Research on walking-based contemporary art’
2025- A-TOM Co., Ltd., ‘COURTYARD ARTIST BOOKSHELF’
2022-2023 FUTURE GATEWAY, KDDI Research Inc., ‘Traveling With One Smartphone’
SCREENINGS, WORKSHOP, ARTIST TALK, TEACHING EXPERIENCES
2025 Guest Lecturer, “Media expression while eating”, Kyoto Seika University, Japan
2025 Silent Interference / Turtle chamber project, Taiwan
2024 HOT SANDWICH MAKERS CLUB Workshop – E NÃO É QUE EU ESTOU SÓ FAZENDO O MEU BAURU ! – RT Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy Shizuoka, Yoshiwara, Japan
2024 Hazama Visual Arts Festival / Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum Berlin, Germany
2024 MELTING WALLS / MURMURCONTEMPORARY, Montreux, Switzerland
2023 OUT SCHOOL 2023 Toyama School Lecturer/ Curator of the exhibition “Fluctuation of Drift”
2023 Artist Talk / Shinyurakucho#Sonoaida, Tokyo
2022 HOT SANDWICH MAKERS CLUB Workshop A-TOM ART AWARD 2022 Vernacular and Dawn / CourtyardHIROO, Tokyo
2022 HOT SANDWICH MAKERS CLUB Workshop We are from human（Cooperation: Yoshiwara Chuo Culture Center, Arts Council Shizuoka）, Shizuoka, Japan
2021 『PRDX PARADOX TOKYO』 21SS ARTISTS COLLABORATION PROJECT
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2025 ANA In-Flight Magazine TSUBASA -GLOBAL WINGS- May 2025 Issue 074 Light, Flight “Travel Mission” written by Mariko Yamauchi
2023 100BANCH MAGAZINE（Web magazine）
2022 Shizuoka Newspaper
2022 TAKURAMI LAB（Web magazine）
2022 FUTURE GATEWAY（Web magazine）
2022 Abema Prime（TV）
2020 TIMELINE（YouTube）
2020 ShinR25（Web magazine）
Statement
Yamaguchi explores the theme of “living without division” through text, dance, video, performance, and interventions in public spaces. His work aims to visualize and transform the complex social structures inherent in collectives.
His creative process starts with research into the urban context and history, as well as interviews with individuals. He then selects the media and extracts concepts to turn into metaphors. Yamaguchi’s work often uses irony, humor, and poetic expression to critique Cartesian rationalism. Western thought has advanced science and technology by separating the observing self (subject) from the observed other (object). However, the limitations of this worldview are evident in the increasing divisions of contemporary society.
Against such a method of recognition, Yamaguchi draws on Eastern thought, particularly the ideas of Japanese philosophers Kitaro Nishida and D.T. Suzuki who translated Zen into English and spread it abroad. Nishida’s concepts of “pure experience” along with Suzuki’s “spirituality,” influence Yamaguchi’s work. He researches their philosophical roots in the natural landscape of Ishikawa Prefecture, where both Yamaguchi and these philosophers are from. Another is the theory of French thinker and film-maker Guy Debord. He criticised, with the concept of ‘spectacle’, the globalisation and unification of information power and the resulting society in which the masses become spectators who only receive information and everything in life exists as a representation on the media. The ‘psychogéographie’ advocated by the Situationist International, an organisation led by Debord, and the ‘dérive’ practised in the city, influenced Yamaguchi’s performance.
Yamaguchi resists the categorization and stratification of his identity by society. In “Are you looking for something?” (2022), he intentionally derails a conversation by responding “the meaning of life” to the routine question from a store clerk, which is the title of the work. In “The Railway Walk” (2024), he expresses the conflict of wanting to stray from the set path but being unable to. This approach has been consistent since his early days when he humorously called himself a “professional unemployed” before he began his career as an artist. In “Traveling with one smartphone” (2017), he addresses the complex power dynamics of national borders, performing a journey from Japan to a foreign country with just a smartphone.
By re-interpreting Eastern and Western philosophies in the context of contemporary society, Yamaguchi believes in walking through the gaps in the spectacle images provided by cities and media to discover the authenticity of people and achieve “living without division.”
18.Jun.2024