諫山元貴 Genki Isayama

Genki Isayama works in a pink house in Hiroshima Prefecture, playing with refined clay, mannequins and plants whilst consistently exploring the originality of replicas. He mainly creates video art that replays at unedited speed, clay objects that have been shaped from molds of mass-produced household items, filmed at fixed points as they disintegrate in water. He also uses motifs such as mannequins, that may be described as the ideal image of the body, or indoor plants that have been grown to a uniform quality. He also organizes the program “Pink de Tea Time” in his shared studio, Studio Pink House, where students, curators and artists can engage in an ongoing dialogue and discussion about the thought processes and techniques of creating artwork.

Solo Exhibitions
2021 “KAAT Atrium Video Project Vo.19: Genki Isayama” Kanagawa Arts Theatre (Kanagawa)
2021 “BankART Under 35 2021” BankART KAIKO (Kanagawa)
2021 “Objects #7” Show window, Hiroshima Station Organized by Hiroshima MOCA (Hiroshima)
2020 “Dummy” eureka (Fukuoka)
2019 “DEVELOPED DUMMY” Hiroshima Art Center (Hiroshima)
2014 “Open Studio: Genki ISAYAMA -Artist-in-Residence at Studio Haegue Yang-” (Berlin)

Group Exhibitions
2024 “Air SUSAKI,” Susaki Machikado-gallery (Kochi)
2023 “Collection 2023” Takamatsu Art Museum (Kagawa)
2023 “LANDSCAPE here and there” MARUEIDO JAPAN (Tokyo)
2023 “MOMAS Collection 2022, The 3rd” The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama (Saitama)
2022 “Artist Transfer in Hiroshima” Art Gallery Miyauchi (Hiroshima)
2022 “Takamatsu Contemporary Art Annual vol.11” Takamatsu Art Museum (Kagawa)
2022 “Each Day Begins with the Sun Rising” Benton Museum of Art Pomona College (Claremont, California)
2019 “ONLY CONNECT OSAKA” Creative Centre Osaka (Osaka)
2018 “Forms Awakening” (Exhibition by Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation) Spiral Garden (Tokyo)
2018 “aspect” HATSUKAICHI Art Gallery (Hiroshima)
2018 “AMP Exhibition: MIYANAGA Akira + ISAYAMA Genki” HOTEL ANTEROOM KYOTO (Kyoto)
2017 “untitled-8” Hiroshima Art Center (Hiroshima)
2017 “BankART LifeⅤ ~KANKO” BankART Studio NYK (Kanagawa)
2017 “Teleporting Landscape” Art Gallery Miyauchi (Hiroshima)
2016 “Sights and Sounds: Japan” The Jewish Museum (New York)
2012 “ART BASE MOMOSHIMA Memorial Exhibition” Momoshima (Hiroshima)
2012 “Hirosima O HIROSHIMA FUKUSHIMA” The former Hiroshima Branch of the Bank of Japan (Hiroshima)
2011 “Trans-Plex” Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei, Taiwan)
2010 “ULTRA AWARD 2010” artzone (Kyoto)
2009 “HIROSHIMA ART PROJECT 2009 Kippo Maru: Exploring inside the Ship!” Various places in Yoshijima (Hiroshima)
2007 “ART FESTA in OYAMAZAKI 2007 make our own tea party -Know the mind of Sen no Rikyu-” Asahi Group Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art (Kyoto)

Awards
2021 Cultural newcomer prize of Hiroshima City
2020 KAIKA TOKYO AWARD, Short-listed
2019 “Open Call for Art Project Ideas 2019” Hiroshima MOCA, Audience’s prize
2019 “NONIO ART WAVE AWARD 2019” Lion Corporation, Grand Prix
2015 “The 12th Gunma Biennale for Young Artists” Short-listed,
2010 “ULTRA AWARD 2010” Kyoto, Grand Prize

Scholarships
2014 Yoshino Gypsum Art Foundation Scholarship

Residency
2023 Artists in Residence Susaki, Kochi
2022 Artists in Residence from Japan, Benton Museum of Art Pomona College, California
2021 Alternasu AIR program at Alternasu, Akita
2014 Residency program at Studio Haegue Yang (Limited to 2014 only) Berlin, Germany

Collection
The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan
Takamatsu Art Museum, Japan
DMG MORI CO., LTD., Tokyo, Japan
Benton Museum of Art Pomona College, US
Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Japan
The Miyauchi Art Foudation (Art Gallery Miyauchi), Hiroshima, Japan
Hiroshima City University, Japan

I think that the deterioration of my body, and the passing of time in the ultimate rule of decay, are the only things I feel is original. This is a different timeline to the subjective time we may perceive as short or long. I aspire to create work that moves back and forth between daily life, and a place where the body can just exist as matter; freed from a socially functioning time or status.

A graduate of Kyoto University of Art and Design, Genki Isayama inversely illuminates the situation where everything (including humans) becomes streamlined and standardised in an accelerating society, around the axis of reproduction and decay. Isayama’s expression, explored through a diversity of methods including video, exposes our perception of time and sensibility of living in a capitalistic society. This has a scope on a scale that exceeds simple civilisation criticism or irony―I hereby recommend him.

（Kohei Nawa）