![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 01-1-1024x682.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/01-1-1024x682.jpg)
1985-2018
oil on paper, photographic emulsion and acrylic on shaped canvas
240×550×28cm (variable size)
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 02TOIS_LY0451_web-814x1024.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/02TOIS_LY0451_web-814x1024.jpg)
1984/2018
Gelatin silver print
25.3×20.3cm
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 03DSC_7148_web-770x1024.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/03DSC_7148_web-770x1024.jpg)
2016
copper, acrylic, ultraviolet curing resin on canvas
194×145.5cm
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 04DSC_7120_web-1024x682.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/04DSC_7120_web-1024x682.jpg)
2016
acrylic and Gofun(white pigment) on styrofoam
70×61×82cm
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 10名称未設定59_web-1024x815.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/10名称未設定59_web-1024x815.jpg)
2004
scanning electron micrograph, inkjet print
280×334cm, each
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 11-802x1024.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/11-802x1024.jpg)
2003
vacuum, glass, leather, iron
90×φ50cm
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 12名称未設定124-1024x508.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/12名称未設定124-1024x508.jpg)
1998
Chromogenic print
120×240cm
![This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 14AI12-1-792x1024.jpg](https://mem-inc.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/14AI12-1-792x1024.jpg)
1996
braille point on brass plate, chandelier
Brass plate: 48×48cm, each (81 plates in total)
Chandelier: 150×φ130cm
Tomoaki Ishihara was born in 1959 and graduated from the Kyoto City University of Arts in 1984. In the 1980s he produced self-portrait photographs printed onto spindle-shaped canvases with photosensitive emulsifiers painted on them as well as huge stitched leather sculptures. His artwork traverses through different mediums such as photograph, painting, and sculpture questioning the framework of art media and the structure of what it means to see. For example, he often digitally converts parts of his body into physical media. Ishihara says that he is experimenting to augment the finiteness of the “body.” In this exhibition, we would like to present 60 works which are self-portraits from 34 years ago which he has printed again as gelatin silver print. The exhibition of more variants of this series are planned.
Ishihara held solo exhibitions in Tochigi Prefectural Art Museum in 1998, Otani Memorial Art Museum in 2004 and he participated in the Venice Biennale’s Aperto section in 1988. His most recent exhibitions include his 2017 solo exhibition, Mirror Behind Hole – Photography into Sculpture at gallery αM in Tokyo; a group show, Japanorama New Vision on Arts in Japan Since 1970 at The Centre Pompidou Metz in France; a group show in 2018, Starting Points: Japanese Art of the ‘80s. at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa; a traveling solo exhibition 34 LIGHT YEARS at MEM gallery in Tokyo; and in 2021, a group show Photographic Distance at Tochigi Prefectural Museum of Fine Arts.