Michio FUKUOKA Solo Exhibition

Michio FUKUOKA Solo Exhibitionfront:《Cutting Grass》30x26xh67cm 1976 part, back:《Isn’t That about Enough? Let's Smile》183×275cm 2003 part

Gallery Yamaki Fine Art is pleased to hold a solo show “Michio FUKUOKA: Let’s Smile” from Sat, September 17, 2022 to Fri, October 21, 2022, as the second exhibition of the artist at our gallery after four years. This exhibition will feature the work 《Isn’t That about Enough? Let’s Smile》, combined with drawings never open to public from the 1960s and landscape sculptures made of FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic), a signature material of Fukuoka’s work, from a new perspective of the present.

Fukuoka started the drawings which consist of repeated short words like an utter of his inner feeling from as early as the late 1960. From the late 90s, Fukuoka worked on a series of second-dimensional sculptures whose surfaces of FRP are covered with cynical words such as “I have nothing to do.” Through the contrast between the repetition of the hard but seemingly simple handwork of carving FRP and the substantivity of the material like a large stone monument, the artist presents his own sense of humor full of self-criticism to his own daily life and of art creation itself. Continuing to carve the same words of murmuring every time, swaying between a sense of anticipation and disappointment to himself or something else, he expresses unbounded brightness and bottomless futility at the same time.

Reflecting on this new post-COVID life, we might have become more sensitive than before to the meaning or power in the words which oneself and others say. Fukuoka’s works with the motif of “words” stay close to our situation. When we look at Fukuoka’s work through the eyes of our ever-changing senses and values in this moving society, what kind of inner reaction will be evoked? We hope you will enjoy exploring Fukuoka’s unique trajectory with a keen sense of change in the society.


【Selected solo Exhibitions】
2022'Michio FUKUOKA Exhibition "Let's Smile"', Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe
2018'Michio FUKUOKA Exhibition "From the Scene of Black Color"', Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe
2017'A Sculptor Who No Longer Sculpts’, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2016‘Words and Characters’, Gallery Hosokawa, Osaka
2013'My Face', Gallery Hosokawa, Osaka
2008'Kizashi -Michio Fukuoka From 1970's-1980's', Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka
2008'Michio Fukuoka: Expression of Water' The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga
2005'Laughing Warm, Angry Warm', Art Space Niji, Kyoto
2005'Rotten Balls', Shinanobashi Gallery, Osaka
2001'Michio Fukuoka Nothing to Do' INAX Gallery, Tokyo
2000'Michio Fukuoka New Works: Should We Really Not be Scared?' Itami City Museum of Art,Hyogo
1979'Retrospective exhibition Michio Fukuoka’s World' Osaka Citizen’s Gallery, Osaka
1958'Michio Fukuoka' Hakuho Gallery, Osaka

【Selected Group Exhibitions】
2024“Relief to Three Dimensional" Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Hyogo
2023Taipei Dangdai Art &Ideas', Gallery Yamaki Fine Art booth, Taiwan
2023"Concept – Object – Environment" Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Hyogo
2022ACK(Art Collaboration Kyoto) Gallery Yamaki Fine Art booth, Kyoto
2022'Back to 1972' Otani Memorial Art Museum, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo, Japan
2022‘Rewinding the MOT Collection Collection 2nd’ , Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Japan
2022‘Collection 2: Our Life’, The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2019'Art Basel Hong Kong', Gallery Yamaki Fine Art booth, Hong Kong
2014'Yokohama Triennale 2014', Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama
2013‘Tamamono’, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
2012'The Link between Words and Art: An Homage to Nakahara Yusuke', Gallery Yamaki Fine Art, Kobe
1997'The 20th Anniversary Exhibition: From the Permanent Collection' The National Museum of Art, Osaka
1996'1964: A Turning Point in Japanese Art' Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo
1993'Kosuke Kimura and Michio Fukuoka Exhibition' Kyoto Municipal Art Museum, Kyoto
1991'Japanese Anti-Art: Now and Then' The National Museum of Art, Osaka
1991'A Current of Contemporary Art in Japan-Sculpture' The Museum of Modern Art, Toyama
1986'White and Black in Contemporary Art' The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
1985'4 Sculptors Exhibition' The Museum of Modern Art, Wakayama
1981'The 16th San Paulo Biennale' San Paulo, Brazil
1980'Asian Contemporary Art Exhibition' Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
1975'The 2nd Hakone Open-Air Museum Grand Prize Exhibition' The Hakone Open-Air Museum, Kanagawa
1972'Vesuvius Grand Strategy Exhibition' Minami Gallery, Tokyo / Galleria Il Centro, Naples
1972'A Bird’s-eye View on Contemporary Art' The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
1970'Wins Kobe City Park Association Prize, the 2nd Biennale of Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition' Suma Rikyu Park, Kobe
1969'Contemporary World Art・Dialogues on East and West' The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1968'Contemporary Japanese Art Exhibition' I.C.A., London
1967'Wins the Mr. K Prize, The 2nd UBE Biennale International Sculpture Competition' Ube City Outdoor Sculpture Garden Museum, Ube
1966'New Generation of Contemporary Art' The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
1964'Movement of Contemporary Art' The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto
1963'Absent Room' (curated by the art critic Yusuke Nakahara) Naika Gallery, Tokyo
1963'Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, Minami Tada, Michio Fukuoka Joint Exhibition' Shinjuku Daiichi Gallery, Tokyo
【Artist Information】
Michio FUKUOKA

SessionSat. Sep 17, 2022 - Fri. Oct 21, 2022 Closed on Sundays and Mondays
Hours11:00-13:00 / 14:00-18:00 
PlaceGallery Yamaki Fine Art
Venue3-9-5-2F Motomachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0022
ContactTEL: 078-391-1666  FAX : 078-391-1667  MAIL: info@gyfa.co.jp
AccessOne minute walk from Motomachi Station, West exit (JR/ Hanshin Line)
ChargeFree