Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is a Tokyo-based photographer. Araki completed his studies at Chiba University’s Department of Photography, Printing and Engineering with a focus on the study of film and photography. His photographic project “Satchin” earned him the prestigious Taiyo Award in 1964, shortly after he had joined the advertising agency Dentsu, where he worked until 1972. At Dentsu he met his wife Yoko, to whom he paid homage in Sentimental Journey, a photographic record of their honeymoon published in 1971. Eros and thanatos has been a central theme in Araki’s work; an abiding fascination with female genitalia and women’s bodies in Japanese bondage, flowers, food, his cat, faces, and Tokyo street scenes.
EDUCATION
1963 - Graduated from the Engineering Department of Chiba University, majoring photography and film-making
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 - ARAKI POLAROIDS, VILLAZAN, Madrid, Spain
2023 - Broad Daylight of Paradise / Black Night of Paradise, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2023 - Hana-Jinsei, Kahitsukan - Kyoto Museum of Contemporary Art, Kyoto, Japan
2022 - Sky of Paradise, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2022 - SISTERS in PARADISE, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2022 - Nobuyoshi Araki, Olivier Malingue, London, UK
2022 - HANAHIME, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2022 - Rakuen Nippon, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2021 - Polaroids, SHOP Taka Ishii Gallery, Hong Kong
2021 - Haru Kareru, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2021 - Rakuen, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2020 - Koizora, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2020 - SANJU, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2019 - Gekko Shashin, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2019 - Flower Rondeau, SHOP Taka Ishii Gallery, Hong Kong
2019 - ARAKI TELLER SHISEI, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2019 - SHIMEN AIKA, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2018 - nehan shoujo, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2018 - Impossible Love – Vintage Photographs, C/O Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2018 - AI ELEGY, artspace AM, Tokyo, JapanKATA-ME, Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2018 - 78 sai no shamanatsu, artspace AM, Tokyo, Japan
2018 - Love-Dream, Love-Nothing, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo
2016 - ARAKI AMORE, Galleria Carla Sozzani, Milan, Italy
2016 - A Desktop Paradise, Taka Ishii Gallery Photography Paris, Paris, France
2016 - ARAMAME, Morioka Shoten Ginza, Tokyo, Japan
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 - Group Exhibition, Taka Ishii Gallery Kyobashi, Tokyo, Japan
2024 - A Personal View of Japanese Contemporary Art: Takahashi Ryutaro Collection,Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
2024 - Material provocativo para pensar. Fotografía japonesa contemporánea.Colección José Luis Soler Vila, Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga, Málaga, Spain
2022 - 400 Polaroids: Nobuyoshi Araki/Daido Moriyama, Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA, USA
2022 - Earth: A Retrospective, Bombas Gens Centre d’Art, Valencia, Spain
2022 - Nobuyoshi Araki and RinkoKawauchi, Fundación Texo, Asunción, Paraguay
2022 - Coming of Age: Participant, Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, France
2022 - Love Songs: Photography and intimacy, La MEP, Paris, France
2021 - CONTRAST = Light and Shadow, Semba Art Site Project, Osaka, Japan
2021 - My Flower, Taka Ishii Gallery Photography / Film, Tokyo, Japan
2019 - GRADATION Daikanyama, Tenoha Daikanyama, Tokyo, Japan
2019 - Character Study, Ratio 3, San Francisco, CA, USA
2019 - Survived!, Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
AWARDS
2012 - 54th Mainichi Art Award, Special Award 6th ANGO Awards
2008 - Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Arts
1994 - Japan Inter-Design Forum Grand Prix
1991 - 7th Higashikawa Prize
1990 - Lifetime Achievement Award from the Photographic Society of Japan
1964 - First Taiyo Prize
