Overview

Born in Tokyo in 1963, Emi Anrakuji represents herself as an alchemist of images and a catalyst for daydreams and desires. Her deeply personal work blurs the boundaries between documentary and staged photography. Posing naked, clothed, or partially dressed, Anrakuji takes a uniquely obsessive interest in her own body. 

Emi Anrakuji (b. 1963) is a Tokyo-based female photographer working primarily in black and white since the 1990s. She studied oil painting at Musashino University of Art and Music, but cerebral cancer which caused a severe degradation of her eyesight forced her to quit painting. Instead, she taught herself photography using the camera lens as a replacement for her eyes. Since 2001 her work has been exhibited extensively across the United States, Japan, Korea, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France. A Higashikawa New Photograph Prize winner in 2006, Anrakuji participated in the Daegu Photo Biennale in South Korea in 2008 and PhotoEspaña in 2017. Her work has been featured in several notable publications including FOAM, The New Yorker, and IMA. She has also published five monographs—HMMT? (2005) from Yu-Time Shuppan, Anrakuji (2006), e-hagaki (2006), and IPY (2008) from Nazraeli Press, and MISHO (2017) from SHINTO editions.

Biography

Education

1963                Born in Tokyo, Japan

                         MFA - Musashino Art University, Tokyo, Japan

 

Solo Exhibitions

 

2022.             Ehagaki - Picture Postcard - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York 

2018                JUST LOVE - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York

2015                1800 Millimètres - In Camera Galerie, Paris

                         1800 Millimètres - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York

2013                O MAPA - Gallery Past Rays, Yokohama

                         O MAPA - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York

2012                A Decent Life - Gallery Past Rays, Yokohama

2011                A Decent Life - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York

2010                CHASM – Sakeme - Gallery Past Rays, Yokohama, Japan

2009                CHASM - Sakeme - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York

2008                 Gallery Past Rays, Yokohama, Japan

                          Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, Portland, Oregon

                          Rat Hole Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2007                 MU Project, Washington D.C.,

                          Gallery Past Rays, Tokyo, Japan

                          EPSITE, Tokyo, Japan

2006                EASE - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York

                          A Selection from HMMT? - Miyako Yoshinaga Gallery, New York

2005                TOADSTOOL - BanKART, Yokohama, Japan

                          HMMT? - Gallery Past Rays, Yokohama, Japan

                          Gallery Imago, Curated by Kotaro Iizawa, Japan

2004                 White Cube Gallery, Kyoto, Japan

                          White Cube Osaka, Osaka

 

Group Exhibitions

2019                 Japan Museum Sieboldhuis, Leiden, the Netherlands

2016                 Aquí y Ahora fifth edition - Blanca Soto Arte, Spain

2015                 Shikijo: eroticism in Japanese photography - Blidspot Gallery, Hong Kong

2014                 Intimacy - In Camera Galerie, Paris

2013                 Japanese Art Photographers 107, a special exhibition - Art Fair Tokyo

2008                 Daegu Photo Biennale 2008 - South Korea

2008                 Gallery Past Rays, Yokohama, Japan

2005                 Video Screening by Toshiharu Ito, Japan

2004                 Yokohama Photo Studio, BanKART, Yokohama, Japan

2002-04            Exhibitions at Gatwick Airport, London

2002                 Inside Space Gallery on Selfrige's, London

2002                 Christie's, London

 

Awards

2006     

The 22nd Higashikawa New Photography Prize, Japan

2003

A Chairman’s Prize, The Japan Alliance of Printing Industry, The 57th All Japan Calendar Competition, Japan

 

1st Place, the Fine Art Abstract Category and Fine Art, Photographer of the Year, International Photography Award, USA

 

Grand Prize, Albion Art Museum Photography Award, Japan

 

Excellence Awards, Visual Category, Little More, Japan

2002

Humming Bird Awards, Hirama Itaru Photographic Awards, Japan

 

Excellence Award, Niigata Tomioka White Musem, Japan

2001

Grand Prix, Yoshikazu Ueno Photography Award, Japan

 

Excellence Award, London Photographic Awards, UK

 

Publications

2008  ipy - Nazraeli Press, USA
2007 e hagaki (One Picture Book #40) - Nazraeli Press, USA
  Witness #2, edited by Daido Moriyama - Nazraeli Press, USA
2006 Anrakuji - Nazraeli Press, USA
2005 HMMT? - Yu-Time Shuppan, Japan 

 

Collections 

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, USA (Gloria Katz and Willard M. Huyck Jr. Collection) 

Joy of Giving Something, Inc. USA

Higashikawa Awards Collection, Hokkaido, Japan

 

Press
Exhibitions
News
Events
Bibliography

2018

“Emi Anrakuji: A Passage Through Pain and Suffering,” Exposure, September 12

Exhibition Review: Just Love, MUSEE magazine, June 2

 

2016

Desai, Natasha “This is an Ode to Yourself,” Better Photography, March 

 

2015

L'OEIL DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE, “Paris: 1800 Millimètres and Ipyby Emi Anrakuji at in camera galerie, October 

Donatella Montrone, “Emi Anrakuji – ‘1800 Millimètre. It’s the size of my bed,” British Journal of Photography,  July 9

Schmerler, Sarah “Emi Anrakuji : 1800 Millimètre” May 29

Knoblauch, Loring : Emi Anrakuji 1800 Millimètre @Miyako Yoshinaga, May 27

The New Yorker “Emi Anrakuji” May 22, 2015

Lederman, Russet “Desire and Portraits of Sexuality as Filtered Through Life and Deth” FOAM Magazine #40 After Araki, Spring 

 

2013

Lee, Jonathan, “Mapping Embodiment,” January 21, 2014 (unpublished manuscript)

The New Yorker, “Emi Anrakuji,”November 25

 

2012

“Japanese Art Photographers 108, IMA, p.9, Winter 2012

 

2008

Iizawa, Kotaro, “Japan, Women and Photography”, C International Photo Magazine, June 

 

2007

“Emi Anrakuji” (interview), XFUNS, p.26 – p.33, April 

Dawson, Jessica, “Emi Anrakuji Mental Map at MU Project” Washington Post, March 17

Rice, Shelly, “Dream Space,” New York, February 

 

Series
Works
Art Fairs
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