Tomatsu Shomei, "Prostitute", Nagoya, 1957
ABOUT
(1930-2012) Tomatsu was studying economics at Aichi University when he started taking photographs. After working at Iwanami Shashin Bunko (Iwanami Photograph Publicity), he began working as a freelance photographer in the 1950s. Major solo exhibitions include “Sakura and Plastics” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York,1992) “Shomei Tomatsu: Skin of the Nation” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (San Francisco, 2004), “Tokyo Mandala” at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Tokyo, 2007), “The Chiseling of Time” at the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum (Nagasaki, Japan, 2010), “Tomatsu Shomei: Photographer” at the Nagoya City Art Museum (Nagoya, 2011), “Shomei Tomatsu: Island Life” at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2013), “Shomei Tomatsu” at the Fundación MAPFRE Casa Garriga Nogués Exhibition Hall (Barcelona, 2018), and major group exhibitions include “Conflict, Time, Photography” at Tate Modern (London,2014), “For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979” at The Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, 2015), “PROVOKE BETWEEN PROTEST AND PERFORMANCE – PHOTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN” at Albertina (Vienna,2016).
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
Tomatsu Shomei
Born in Nagoya, Aichi 1930, died in Okinawa, Japan 2012
– Education –
1950-54 Aichi University, Nagoya
– Selected Solo Exhibitions –
2020 Plastics, MISA SHIN GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
2020 Tomatsu Shomei, Shining wind – Okinawa, INTERFACE – Shomei Tomatsu Lab., Okinawa, Japan
2019 Tomatsu Shomei, INTERFACE, INTERFACE – Shomei Tomatsu Lab., Okinawa, Japan
2018 Tomatsu Shomei Photographs, Okinawa Miyako 1972 to 1983, Miyakojima City Museum, Okinawa, Japan
2018 Shomei Tomatsu, Fundacion MAPFRE, Barcelona, Spain
2017 INTERFACE — Or, What Japan’s Great Post-War Photographers Kept Looking For. An Inquiry into the Artistic Practice of Shomei Tomatsu., Photo History Museum FUJIFILM SQUARE, Tokyo, Japan
2017 Assalamu alaikum, Place M, Tokyo, Japan
2017 Oh! Shinjuku, AKIO NAGASAWA Gallery | Publishing, Tokyo, Japan
2016 Shomei Tomatsu: Nagasaki, Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan
2016 Shomei Tomatsu: The Pencil of the Sun, Miyanomori International Museum of Art, Sapporo, Japan
2015 Chewing Gum and Chocolate, MISA SHIN GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
2015 Pencil of the Sun, Akio Nagasawa gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2014 Inaugural Exhibition: Shomei Tomatsu, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Afghanistan 1963, MISA SHIN GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Shomei Tomatsu Island life, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA
2013 Tomatsu Shomei and plants in Okinawa, Collection Gallery 2, Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan
2013 Toki-wo-kezuru, Mitsubishi-Jisho ARTIUM, Fukuoka, Japan
2013 Tomatsu Shomei Photographs, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Nagasaki, Japan
2013 Nagasaki 11:02, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki, Japan
2013 Shomei Tomatsu The pencil of the Sun,Open Gallery, Canon S Tower, Tokyo, Japan
2012 Tomatsu Shomei Photographs, Tonami Art Museum, Toyama, Japan
2011 Shinjuku Turmoil, MISA SHIN GALLERY, Tokyo, Japan
2011 Tomatsu Shomei. Okinawa Photographs- Love Letter to the Sun, Okinawa Perfectual Museum & Art Museum, Naha, Japan
2011 Shomei Tomatsu, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2010 TOMATSU SHOMEI: PHOTGRAPHS, Nagoya City Art Museum, Aichi, Japan
2009 Nagasaki 11:02, Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, Nagasaki, Japan
– Selected Group Exhibitions –
2018 Japan Modern: Photography from the Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection, Freer｜Sackler, Washington, USA
2018 a Handful of Dust from the Cosmic to the Domestic, California Museum of Photography, California, USA
2017 20 Year Anniversary TOP Collection: Tokyo Tokyo and TOKYO, , Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo
2016 PROVOKE BETWEEN PROTEST AND PERFORMANCE PHOTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN 1960- 1975, Albertina, Vienna, Austria; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Le Bal, Paris, France
2015 For a New World to Come: Experiments in Japanese Art and Photography, 1968-1979, The Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, USA; Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, USA; Japan Society Gallery, New York, USA
2015 The 70th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki: War and Peace, Hiroshima Prefectural Museum and Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, Japan
2015 2nd Collection Gallery Exhibition 2015-16, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
2015 Conflict, Time, Photography, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany; Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
2015 Aichi NotesClay, Ceramics, Landscape and Memory, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Aichi, Japan
2014 Conflict, Time, Photography, Tate Modern, London, UK
2014 The Provoke Era: Japanese Photography from the Collection of SFMOMA, Crocker Art Museum, California, USA
2013 1968 -Japanese Photography, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
2013 Memories of the Town: Yokosuka via photography and art, Yokosuka Museum of Art, Kanagawa, Japan
2012 Tokyo 1955-1970: A New Avant-Garde, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2012 Everything Was Moving: Photography from the 60s and 70s, Barbican Art Gallery, London, UK
2012 Busan Biennale 2012 Garden of Leaning, The Busan Biennale 2012, Busan, Korea
2011 Breaking News Fukushima and the consequences ?, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, German
2008-09 Ryukyu, Okinawa Two People Exhibition Higa Yasuo Ritual of Ryukyu: Tomatsu Shomei Chewing Gum and Chocolate, Canon Gallery S, Tokyo; Urasoe Art Museum, Okinawa
EXHIBITIONS AT MISA SHIN GALLERY
Plastics
TOMATSU Shomei
February 28 – April 18, 2020
Chewing Gum and Chocolate
TOMATSU Shomei
March 1 – April 9, 2016
The Road Not Taken
OZAWA Tsuyoshi, AI Weiwei, Ken LUM, TOMATSU Shomei
Nov 27, 2015 – Jan 30, 2016
Afghanistan 1963
TOMATSU Shomei
September 19 – November 2, 2013
Shinjuku Turmoil
TOMATSU Shomei
April 21 – June 11, 2011