MEM (Multiply Encoded Messages) was founded by Katsuya Ishida in 1997 as a private gallery in Shitennoji, Osaka and moved to Esaka in the same year. In 2003, MEM opened to the public as a contemporary art gallery in Kitahama, Osaka. The gallery was located on the fourth floor of the Arai Building, a registered tangible cultural property built in 1922. It hosted a series of three solo shows commemorating its opening, featuring three artists: Barco negro na mesa which introduced the early work of Yasumasa Morimura; Tomoaki Ishihara’s SCOTOMA which featured his sculpture of an evacuated sphere; and HIMALAYA which exhibited Chie Matsui’s video installation shot in the Arai Building.

MEM’s early exhibitions highlighted the works of well-established Kansai-region artists like Yoshio Kitayama, Kimiyo Mishima, Yasue Kodama, and newcomers like Noriko Yamaguchi and Maki Toshima. In 2010, MEM once again changed its home to the art complex NADiff A/P/A/R/T in Ebisu, Tokyo, where it continues to operate today. Upon relocation, the gallery added emerging artists such as Ayano Sudo and Natsuko Tanihara. In addition, the gallery has enriched its programs focused on photography and introduced works by Ken Kitano, Katsumi Omori, Keizo Motoda, Charles Fréger, Antoine d’Agata, and other artists who represent contemporary photographic art in Japan and overseas. Notably, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Shigeo Gocho’s passing, the gallery organized a two-session exhibition to reexamine the iconic photographer from the konpora photographic movement of the 1970’s.

In the mid-1990s, the gallery was fortunate to come across avant-garde pieces by the pre-World War II photographer, Osamu Shiihara. Prompted by this discovery, the gallery started investigating and exhibiting works by the Tampei Photography Club, to which Shiihara belonged, other photography groups and individual photographers who were involved in the avant-garde photography movement before and after the war. Some noteworthy projects include: curation of the portfolio and exhibition featuring modern prints based on glass negatives originally by Iwata Nakayama, founder of the Ashiya Camera Club in 1930; an exhibition highlighting the activities of the Naniwa Photography Club in the early post-war period; an exhibition to reintroduce photography by Shigeru Onishi who gained recognition in Europe for his abstract ink paintings after they were featured in exhibitions curated by Michel Tapié through the 1960’s and 1970’s; and an exhibition introducing the Kyoto-based avant-garde photography group, K.P.S. (Kyoto Photographers Society).

MEM is the intersection between artists and the public. A collaborative arena where experimental projects and new works are born, exhibited and encoded messages are multiplied to enkindle new ideas.
MEM aims to re-trace the footprints of historically important artists from conception through development, considering their historical and social contexts, to understand their place and significance in the history of art and photography.
MEM endeavors to promote their artist’s work focusing on museums and private and public institutions.

MEM actively participates in domestic and international art fairs, including Paris Photo, The Photography Show presented by AIPAD, and Art Basel in Hong Kong. Currently, MEM is a member of the Association for the Promotion of Contemporary Art in Japan (APCA), the Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD), the Fine-Art Photography Association (FAPA), and the Contemporary Art Dealers Association Nippon (CADAN).

How to order

1) Please order by email.

2) Order at NADiff online (Japanese version only)
　Some books are available at the store NADiff a/p/a/r/t (Ebisu)、NADiff BAITEN (museum shop at TOP museum in Ebisu).

3) Order at MEDIA SHOP online store (Japanese version only)

4) Order at OIL by 美術手帖 (Japanese version only)

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Hiroko Komatsu – Silent Sound

▼Standard version
Limited edition of 270, each editioned and signed

15 photographic reproductions (offset print), 203×203mm each
Booklet, 20 pages, 7 plates
DVD (15’19”, B&W, silent)

Box size｜215×215×23mm
Photographs and movies｜Hiroko Komatsu
Text｜Hiroko Komatsu, Gen Umezu
Design｜Tadao Kawamura
Language｜Japanese, English
Published by MEM
Date｜August, 2021
Price｜5,000Yen (Tax, shipping costs not included)
>>email to order

▼Special version
Limited editions of 30, each editioned and signed

In addition to the standard edition, the Special Edition version will include a 203×203mm (8×8inch) original gelatin silver print. The box will also be wrapped using 50.8x61cm(20x24inch) original print of the same image. Each prints are singed by the artist.
Special Price, First 10 copies: 36,000Yen (excluding tax, shipping costs)
Price for the rest of 20 copies: 45,000Yen (excluding tax, shipping costs)
>>email to order

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Natsuko Tanihara – An Artist of the Floating World

Size: 280×225mm
Pages: 64 pages, 35 plates
Text: Yasuyuki Nakai, Yasumasa Morimura
Language: Japanese
Published by MEM
Supported by The Tokyu Foundation
Year: 2021

>>email to order

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Natsuko Tanihara – MATSUROWANU-MONO

Exhibition catalogue of “MATSUROWANU-MONO” at MEM in 2019.

Size: 210×148mm
Page: 32 pages　17 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Yasuyuki Nakai (Deputy Director and Chief Curator of The National Museum of Art, Osaka)
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2019

>>email to order

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Noboru Ueki & Yūshi Kobayashi of the K.P.S.

The show catalogue of MEM booth at PARIS PHOTO 2019

Size: 210×148mm
Page: 74 pages　28 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Ryuichi Kaneko (Photography historian), Noboru Ueki, Yushi Kobayashi
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2019

>>email to order

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The Naniwa Photography Club in the Post-war Period: Yoho Tsuda, Shosuke Sekioka & Heihachiro Sakai

The show catalogue of MEM booth at PARIS PHOTO 2018.

Size: 210×148mm
Page: 60 pages　27 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Ryuichi Kaneko (Photography historian)
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2018

>>email to order

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Yasue Kodama – Deep Rhyme

Size: 185×200mm
Page: 80 pages　35 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Toshiaki Minemura, Yasue Kodama
Design: Kenta Shibano
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2018

>>email to order

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Gen Otsuka

The show catalogue of MEM booth at The Photography Show presented by AIPAD 2018.

Size: 210×148mm
Page: 56 pages　27 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Ryuichi Kaneko (Photography historian)
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2018

>>email to order

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Yasumasa Morimura – High, Red, Central, Action

The show catalogue of MEM booth at Art Basel Hong Kong 2018.

Size: 210×148mm
Page: 56 pages　29 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Yasumasa Morimura (Artist), Yuri Mitsuda (Art critic)
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2018

>>email to order

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Chiyuki Sakagami – Scripture of the Birds

The book consists of a series of drawings with blue ink on paper that Sakagami exhibited at MEM in 2012. She pays an homage to the birds, the creature she loves the most on the earth.

Size: 280×225mm
Page: 62 pages　26 plates
Cover: Soft
Test: Kenjiro Hosaka (curator of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)
Design: Yoshihisa Tanaka
Translation: Nobuko Aiso
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2017

>>email to order

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Shigeru Onishi – In Search of Meta-Infinite

The show catalogue of MEM booth at PARIS PHOTO 2017.

Size: 210×148mm
Page: 48 pages　28 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Ryuichi Kaneko (Photography historian)
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2017

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The Tampei Photography Club and Modern Photography in Japan – OTONO Sutezo, KONO Toru, SHIIHARA Osamu

The show catalogue of MEM booth at PARIS PHOTO 2016.

Size: 210×148mm
Page: 42 pages　29 plates
Cover: Soft
Text: Ryuichi Kaneko (Photography historian)
Design: Masahiro Miura
Language: Japanese, English
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2016

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Ken Kitano – our face: Asia

Ken Kitano creates composite photographs using multiple portraits of people who belong to particular groups. In each of these pieces, the “Individual” disappears from the photo paper, and is replaced by “our face”. Communities with diverse cultures, customs and standpoints are represented.
The culmination of a 15-year-long project by Kitano, this book presents material gathered both in Japan and throughout Asia.

Size: 290×220×38mm
Page: 304 pages　133 plates
Cover: Hard
Art Director: Satoshi Machiguchi (match and Company, inc.)
Editor: Hisako Motoo (eyesencia)
Collaboration: Katsuya Ishida (MEM)
Text: Yu Hidaka, Ken Kitano
Language: Japanese, English, Chinese
Publisher: Seigensha Art Publishing, Inc.
Year: 2013

Special 100 limited edition accompanied with one original gelatin silver print is also available from MEM.
Print: our face, 30 Geiko and Maiko performers for the Kyo-Odori of Miyagawa-cho, April 4 and 5, 2003, Performance Studio in Miyagawa-cho, Kyoto, Japan
(8×10 inches, each signed, titled and numbered on verso)

>>email to order

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Ken Kitano – FLOW AND FUSION

The book presents black and white cityscape photographs of Tokyo around 1990. Kitano captured a moment of the aggressively moving capital by slow shutter on the street, subway and suburbs of Tokyo. The series is the first milestone for the artist who later produced a well-known portrait series called our face. The book is published in a limited edition of 400 in addition to a special limited edition of 100 with an original print.

Size: 330×360mm
Page: 103 pages　23 plates
Regular edition: 400 (each signed, numbered)
Special edition: 100 (each signed, numbered) accompanied with one original gelatin silver print
Cover: Hard
Design: Satoshi Machiguchi (match and Company, inc.)
Editor: Hisako Motoo (eyesencia)
Publisher: MEM
Year: 2009

>>email to order

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Chie Matsui, Keiji Nakamura “We Never Went Out on a Date”

Size: 205×150×20mm
Page: 230 pages (many reproductions of Matsui’s drawings)
Essay and text: Nakamura and Matsui
Attached DVD contains three video pieces by Matsui
DVD contains:
Himalaya (2003, 37′ 00″)
HEIDI 44 (2004, 38′ 00″)
HEIDI 45 (2005, 15′ 00″)

>>email to order

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