About the artist and artwork

Nobuyuki Osaki’s practice examines personal perceptions of reality, particularly the "uncertainty of reality", through a diverse range of mediums including drawing, installations, photos, and sculptures. In his most recent works, "The world" and "dimension wall", images (painted by the artist) on a digital screen slowly disintegrate over time. The process of dissolving an image is meant as a metaphor to our “perceived realities”-- our distorted perceptions. Much like paintings have exposed fragments of the artist's perceptive reality for centuries, Osaki explores our perceptions of realities in the 21st century through the exploration of the digital dimension. To "fast forward" and to "loop" are functions unique to digital works.Osaki's recent digital works gently question the extent to which our intricate relationship with digital technology in the 21st century distort our perceptions.

About the exhibition

Osaki will be presenting his latest works in the exhibition, “Trace Trip”, featuring works of moving images, drawings, paintings, and photos. The exhibition explores the idea of “tracing” memories and identities of people: the series compiles interviews and photo albums of friends, trips to their home towns, and information obtained online.

Based on the memories and records of a friend (H K), Osaki traveled to several sites in Japan in order to obtain information concerning the friend’s biographical stories. Discrepancies, distortions, and differences that result from memories; perceptive and material shifts of realities from the past to the present; delicate lines that tread fiction and realities; “Trace Trip” is Osaki’s reconstruction of an intimate biography.

Furthermore, interviews are deliberately omitted from the exhibition. By revealing only fragments of the story, viewers start projecting their personal experiences and understanding of their world onto the works, a “continuous fiction”.

Artist Profile

Osaki was born in 1975, Osaka, Japan, and received BFK in Print Making from Kyoto City University of Arts in 1998, and MFA from Graduate School of Kyoto City University of Arts in 2000. 

He’s been featured in exhibitions such as “The 12th Japan Media Arts Festival” (The National Art Centre, Tokyo) in 2009, “Haut. Mythos und Medium” (Kunsthaus, Hamburg) in 2011, “New Phases in Contemporary Painting-- A Curator’s Message” (Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Hyogo) in 2012, “Contemporary Art from Nagoya: The World seen from this Position” (Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya) in 2012, and “The Vision of Contemporary Art (VOCA) 2013” (honorable mention/ Ueno Mori Art Museum, Tokyo) in 2013, among others.

He is also scheduled to participate in a group show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo from 24th of January 24th to March 22nd, 2015, concurrently with our exhibition.