1969
Born in Kobe, Japan
1990
Graduated from Osaka College of Art, Osaka
1992
Graduated from San Francisco Art Institute (B.A.)
1997
ARCUS Project, Artist-in-residence program (4 months), Japan, with a grant from the Japan Foundation
1998
Ateliers d’Artistes de la Ville de Marseille (2 months), with a grant from the French Government
1999
Capacete Project, Rio de Janeiro, with a grant from the Pola Art Foundation
2002
Banff Center, Canada, with a grant from Shiseido
2004
Invited to Berlin by DAAD Berliner Kunstlerprogramm
2005-2006
Guest Professor at Braunschweig School of Art, Germany Resides in Berlin
Collections
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Frac Ile-de-France, Paris, France
Frac Corse, Corse, France
Nouveau musee national de Monaco, Monaco
Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, U.S.A.
The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
Solo Exhibitions
2024
"Octopus, Citrus, Human", Centro Botín, Santander, Spain
2023
"Me, We", Museion, Bolzano, Italy
"Moon, Potato, Swan and Sounds", Galleria Zero..., Milan, Italy
2022
"Instrumental", WIELS, Contemporary Art Centre, Brussels, Belgium
"Swan Goes to the Sea / Let’s Make Cows Fly!", Air de Paris, Paris / Romainville, France
2021
"The 165-metre Mermaid and Other Stories", Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, Villa Paloma, Monaco
2018
"Pour les pieuvres, les singes et les Hommes", Centre d’art contemporain d’Ivry - le Crédac, Ivry-sur-Seine, France
"Eyes On: Shimabuku", Denver Art Museum, USA
"Bow to Bow", Amanda Wilkinson Gallery, London, U.K.
2017
"Bow to Bow", Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, Germany
2016
"Cuban Samba", Nogueras Blanchard, Madrid, Spain
"The Snow Monkeys of Texas", Freedman Fritzpatrick, Los Angeles, USA
2015
"Exchange a Mobile Phone for a Stone Tool", Wilkinson Gallery, London, U.K.
2014
"When Sky Was Sea", CAG Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
"Sea and Flowers", Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, Germany
"City in the Sea", Air de Paris, Paris, France
"Flying Me", Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland
2013
"Something that Floats / Something that Sinks," Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, U.K.
"Noto," 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan
2012
"Leaves Swim," Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona
2011
"Shimabuku," Overbeck Gesellschaft Kunstverein Lübeck, Lübeck
"Man should try to avoid contact with alien life forms," Le Centre international d’art et du paysage de l’ile de Vassiviére, France (cat.)
"On the water," CAPC musee d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, France
"My Teacher Tortoise," Wilkinson Gallery, London
2010
"Kaki and Tomato," Air de Paris, Paris
2008
"New Works," Watari-Um, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
"Sea, Sky, Language and so on," DAAD galerie, Berlin, Germany
"Shimabuku’s Fish & Chips," Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, Spain
"Shimabuku’s Fish & Chips," Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK
"The Story So Far 2," Shugoarts, Tokyo, Japan
"Shimabuku’s Fish & Chips," DAAD galerie, Berlin, Germany
2005
"From high in the sky to the bottom of the sea," Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, Spain
"Catching octopus with self-made ceramic pots," Air de Paris, Paris, France
2004
"Born as a Box," Wilkinson Gallery, London, UK
"Yoyo on the Moon (Film and Video Screening with Kidlat Tahimic)," Maejima Art Center / Yume-R, Okinawa, Japan
2003
"Swansea Jack Memorial Dog Swimming Competition," Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, U.K. (artist book)
"Watching the River Flow," Shugoarts, Tokyo, Japan
"Frog’s Sky," Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Schwaz, Austria
"Then, I decided to give a tour of Tokyo to the octopus from Akashi." Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, U.K.
"Then, I decided to give a tour of Tokyo to the octopus from Akashi." Gallery Yvon Lambert, Paris, France
2001
"Passing through the rubber band," Air de Paris, Paris, France
"The Octopus Returns," Kobe Art Village Center / Suma Rikyu Park, Kobe, Japan (artist book)
1999
"I’m traveling with 165-metre mermaid," DAZIBAO, Montreal (artist book), Canada
"Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere," Air de Paris, Paris, France
1988
"In Search of Deer," Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo (artist book), Japan
1996
"Shimabukuro-Shimafukurou," Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan
1994
"America," Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, Japan
1993
"KONNICHIWA," Nagoya City Art Museum, Nagoya, Japan (leaflet)
Group Exhibitions
2025
"Grund und Boden", K21, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
"More Than Human", Design Museum, London, U.K.
2024
"Undo Planet", Art Sonje Center, Seoul, Korea
"Three Tired Tigers", Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE
2023
"The Open World", Thailand Biennale 2023, Chiang Rai, Thailand
"Biennale Son", Valais, Switzerland
"Dans l‘air", Hanger Y, Meudon, France
2022
"Les Eaux Composées", École européenne supérieure d’art de Bretagne, Quimper, France
2021
"And the flowers too", Museo Orto Botanico, Rome, Italy
"July, August, September", St. Apernstr. 13, a project organized by hospitality, Cologne, Germany
"La mer imaginaire", Villa Carmignac, Île de Porquerolles, France
"St. Elmo’s Fire", Rodeo, Piraeus, Greece
2020
"gerlach en koop. What do you do at two? I sleep.", GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen, Germany (September)
"Octopus Encounters: An Immersive Library of Octopus Aesthetics", Glasmoog – Raum für Kunst und Diskurs, Cologne, Germany
"Amuse-bouche. The Taste of Art" Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland
2019
"Sensing Nature from Within", Moderna Museet Malmö, Sweden
"Creatures: When Species Meet", CAC - Contemporary Art Center, Cincinnati, USA
"The Sorcerer’s Burden: Contemporary Art and the Anthropological Turn", The Contemporary Austin, USA
"The Long Now", MaerzMusik, Kraftwerk Berlin, Germany
"Kokomo No Kuni - Replay ", FRAC Grand Large - Hauts de France, Dunkerque, France
"Small Between the Stars, Large Against the Sky", Manic d’art 9 - Québec City Biennial 2019, Canada
"Texture of Life", Reborn Art Festival, Ishinomaki, Japan (artist & curator)
2018
"Take Off", Maison Rouge, Paris, France
"der grosse Anspruch des kleinen Bildes", Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, Germany
"ALLE. Künstlerinnen und Künstler in der Overbeck-Gesellschaft 1918–2018", Overbeck-Gesellschaft, Kunstverein Lübeck, Germany
"In Tune with the World. New selection from our Collection", Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France
"Animals & Us", Turner Contemporary, Margate, Kent, UK
"Kodomo No Kuni", L’Onde, Vélizy-Villacoublay, France
"Aquaria", daadgalerie, Berlin, Germany
2017
"While I was also listening to Simon, Zin, Virginie, etc.", La Criée - centre d’art contemporain, Rennes, France
"Japanorama. A new vision on art since 1970", Centre Pompidou-Metz, France
"Le château des destins croisés", 11 Columbia, Monaco.
"The Show Must Go On", Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland
"Floating worlds", 14th La Biennale de Lyon, France
"Reborn-Art Festival", Ishinomaki, Miyagi, Japan
"Offshore: artist explore the sea", Ferns Art Gallery & Hull Maritime Museum, Kingston upon Hull, UK
"Cinema", Kunsthalle Lingen, Lingen, Germany
"Viva Arte Viva", 57th International Art Exhibition, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
"Futures", CAC: Contemporary Art Center Lithuania, Vilnius
"While I was also listening to David, Eleanor, Mariana, etc", La CrieÌe - centre d’art contemporain, Rennes, France
"Horizon: Against Nature", OED Gallery, Kochi, India
"AQUA", Ile Rousseau, and Chateau de Penthes, Geneva, Switzerland
2016
"The Animal Mirror", ISCP, New York, USA
"Ecce Homo", The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
"FOOD-Ecologies of the everyday", 13th Triennial of Small-Scale Sculpture Fellbach, Germany
"Development" Okayama Art Summit (curated by Liam Gillick), Okayama City, Japan
2015
"Echo of Untouched Range", Lothringer13 Halle, Munich, Germany
"Take me to the river, Dojima River Biennale 2015, Osaka, Japan
"Äppärät", The Ballroom Marfa, Texas, U.S.A
"Contemporary Still-Lives", Antinori Art Project, Firenze, Italy
"#catcontent", Kunstpalais, Erlangen, Germany
"A Climate Fictionalism", Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
"Mountains with a Broken Edge", 12th Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba
"The Way Things Go", Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, USA
2014
"Supple Expansions", Freedman Fitzpatrick, Los Angeles, USA
"A History", Pompidou Centre, Paris, France
Sapporo International Art Festival 2014, Japan
Taipei Biennial 2014, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taiwan
"City and Nature" Sapporo International Art Festival 2014, Sapporo, Japan
"Manners of Matter" Saltzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, Austria
"Underwater Worlds ", Museum Kunst der Westküste, Föhr, Germany
2013
"Aquatopia," Tate St. Ives, St. Ives, U.K.
"Aquatopia," Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, U.K.
"Le Pont," Musee d’art contemporain, Marseille, France
"Re:emerge," Sharjah Biennial 11, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
"how to write 1" Wien Lukatsch, Berlin, Germany
2012
"Mount Fuji does not exist," Plateau / Frac Ile-de-France, Paris, France
2011
"Impossible Community," Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow (cat.), Russia
"Our Magic Hour," Yokohama Triennale 2011: International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Yokohama (cat.), Japan
"Somewhere Else," Nogueras Blanchard, Barcelona, Spain
"Kaza Ana / Air Hole: Another Conceptualism from Asia," The National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
2010
Aichi Triennale 2010, Aichi, Japan (cat.)
"Still Vast Reserves," Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne, Australia (cat.)
"Extra Ordinary," Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool, U.K.
"Eating the Universe. Food in Art," Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck (cat.), Austria
"NEANDERTHALIAN NIGHTS: The world is not at home," Galleria ZERO"¦, Milano, Italy
2009
"Eating the Universe. Food in Art," Kunsthalle Dusseldorf (cat.), Germany
"LINK - Flexible Deviation," KOBE Biennale 2009, Kobe, Japan (cat.)
"Void of Memory," Platform, KIMUSA, Seoul (cat.), South Korea
"Hundred Stories about Love," 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan (cat.)
"Mash Up," ARTSPACE, Auckland, New Zealand
"The Grand Illusion," National Chang Kai Shek Cultural Center, Taipei, Taiwan
2008
"Experimenta FOLKLORE," Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
"Between Art and Life," Centre d’Art Contemporain Geneve, Switzerland
"The Street," Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
"Florescendo: Brasil - Japao O seu lugar," Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota, Japan (cat.)
"All Our Everydays," Gallery VER, Bangkok (cat.), Thailand
"Laughing in a Foreign Language," Hayward Gallery, London (cat.), UK
2007
"Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture from Japan," Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, China
"Tracks of Okinawan Culture 1872-2007," Okinawa Prefectural Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan (cat.)
"Tomorrow," Artsonje Center + Kumho Museum of Art, Seoul (cat.), South Korea
"Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture from Japan," Long March Project, Beijing (cat.), China
"Oriente e tropico," Instituto Cultural Usiminas, Ipatinga, Brazil
"How to live together," MAC: Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Santiago, Chile (cat.)
"Oriente e tropico," Palacio das Artes, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
"The Door into Summer: The Age of Micropop," Art Tower Mito, Japan (cat.)
2006
"How to live together," 27th Biennial de Sao Paulo (cat.), Brasil
"International 06," Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool (cat.), UK
"Empieza el juego," La Casa Encendida, Madrid (cat.), Spain
"ANSTOSS BERLIN," Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, Germany
"Berlin-Tokyo Tokyo-Berlin," Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (cat.), Germany
"I love art 8," Watari-Um, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan
2005
"Circa Berlin," NIKOLAJ, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center, Copenhagen (cat.), Denmark
2004
"Video Dictionary," La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
"Utopia Station," Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
"Expat -Art Centre," ICA, London + Musee de Art Contenporain, Lyon, France
"MixMax," Artsonje Center, Seoul (cat.), south Korea
2003
Biennale of Ceramics in Contemporary Art 2nd edition, Riviera Ligure, Italy (cat.)
"U-Topos," Tirana Biennale 2,Tirana, Albania (cat.)
"SPREAD IN PRATO 2," Prato, Italy (cat.)
"Utopia Station," 50th Venice Biennale, Venice (cat.), Italy
"25 Hrs," International Video Art Show, Barcelona (cat.), Spain
"Time After Time," Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisico, USA
2002
Busan Biennale, Busan, South Korea
"Upstream," Amsterdam/Hoorn, Netherlands (cat.)
"La part de l’autre," Carre d’Art, Nime, France (cat.)
"Radiodumb," Zero Arte Contemporanea, Milano,Italy
"Art in the home," Edinburgh, Scotland
"C’est pas du cinema!," Le Fresnoy, Studio National, Tourcoing, France (cat.)
2001
"Rendez-Vous No.3," Collection Lambert, Avignon, France
"Facts of Life," Hayward Gallery, London (cat.), UK
"Mega Wave," Yokohama 2001:International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Yokohama (cat.), Japan
"Traveler’s Tale," (web project), Institute of International Visual Arts (inIVA), London, UK
"Ikiro-be alive," Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands (cat.)
"The Beginning of Things - The 6th Kitakyusyu Biennale," Kitakyusyu Municipal Museum of Art, Kita Kyusyu, Japan (cat.)
"Encounter," Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo (cat.), Japan
2000
"Gift of Hope," Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (cat.), Japan
"Do it digital," (web project), Kassel, Germany
"Transformer," Raum aktueller Kunst Martin Janda, Vienna, Austria
"As it is," Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, U.K. (cat.)
"COUNTER-PHOTOGRAPHY," Moscow (international touring exhibition) (cat.), Russia
"Elysian Fields," Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (cat.), France
1999
"Empty Garden," Watari-Um, the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (artist book), Japan
"Extra et Ordinaire," Printemps de Cahors, Cahors, France (cat.)
"Ivresse," Ateliers d’Artistes de la Ville de Marseille, Marseille, France
"Space," Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands
"And/Or," Grazer Kunstverein, Graz, Austria
1998
"Donaiyanen!," Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (cat.), France
"La Table," Air de Paris, Paris
"every day," 11th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (cat.)
"Memorealism," Museum City Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan (cat.)
1996 "Place for Survival," Kurumi Kindergarten, Shizuoka, Japan
"The Stream from the South," Kaseda, Kagoshima, Japan
"Survival Tool," Sakura City Museum of Art, Chiba, Japan (cat.)
"Public Art Project - Sound Art," Iwakura, Aichi, Japan (leaflet)
"Displacement-31st Today’s Artist," Yokohama Citizens’ Gallery, Yokohama (cat.), Japan
1995
"From Duchamp to Duchamp," Kita Kanto Museum of Fine Arts, Gunma, Japan
"Rolywholyover a Circus John Cage," Art Tower Mito, Mito, Japan (cat.)
Artist Books
Shimabuku. "Moto," 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa 2014
Shimabuku. "Opening the Door," Little More, Tokyo 2010
Shimabuku. "Cucumber Journey," Shogakukan, Tokyo 2004
Shimabuku. "Swansea Jack Memorial Dog Swimming Competition," Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, U.K., 2003
Shimabuku. "SHIMABUKU 2001," Kobe Art Village Center, Kobe, Japan, 2001
Shimabuku. "In Search of Deer," Self-publishing, 2000
Shimabuku. "With Birds at Dawn," On Sundays, Tokyo, 1999
Maestro, Lani., Shimabuku. "I’m traveling with a 165-metre mermaid/Je voyage avec une sirene de 165 metres," Dazibao, Montreal, 1999