kurimanzutto is pleased to announce the participation of renowned Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki in two simultaneous projects within Mexico City, both of which will take place outside the gallery: a solo presentation in Cantina Ardalio and the third edition of Sonora 128, a billboard exhibition space.

Araki has long been recognized as a master of his medium, whose work captures the link between the I & eye, where photography is the observation of life and death embraced in life, or life embraced in death. Through countless exhibitions and publications, he has tirelessly experimented with the boundaries of photographic form, painting, writing, scratching or collaging his images. Araki makes humanity the most pressing and urgent subject of his work, be it in the form of love, desire, death, sadness, laughter, madness or joy.

Araki has not only exhibited his images in galleries and museums worldwide, but also train stations, bars, and even ramen shops. For him exhibitions are a social event, similar to parades or celebrations. At Cantina Ardalio, a traditional locals-only bar in the Escandón neighbourhood, Araki’s frank love affair with the beauty of life finds a kindred home against murky mirrors.This low-key, all-inclusive cantina welcomes his work, providing a sincere, unpretentious setting where visitors will find a selection of photographic proofs chosen by the artist himself. Images of eros and thanatos, color nudes, food and blossoming flowers: evidence of how, for over fifty years, Araki has sought to portray a society capable of marveling at the most ordinary beauty, which anyone could imagine or witness.

Nobuyoshi Araki (Tokyo, 1940) is a Tokyo-based photographer. Araki completed his studies at Chiba University’s Department of Photography, Painting and Engineering with a focus on the study of film and photography. His photographic project Satchin earned him the prestigious Taiyo Award in 1964, shortly after he had joined the advertising agency Dentsu, where he worked until 1972. At Dentsu he met his wife Yoko, to whom he paid homage in Sentimental Journey, a photographic record of their honeymoon published in 1971. Eros and thanatos (sex and death) has been a central theme in Araki’s work; an abiding fascination with female genitalia and women’s bodies in Japanese bondage, flowers, food, his cat, faces and Tokyo street scenes.

Previous solo exhibitions include Nobuyoshi Araki Photobook Exhibition: Arākī, Izu Photo Museum (Shizuoka, 2012), NOBUYOSHI ARAKI: Self, Life, Death, The Barbican Art Gallery (London, 2005), Hana-Jinsei, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (2003), Tokyo Still Life, Ikon Gallery (Birmingham, 2001), Nobuyoshi Araki, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Gent, 2000), ARAKI Nobuyoshi Sentimental Photography, Sentimental Life, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1999), Tokyo Comedy, Wiener Secession (Vienna, 1997), Journal intime, Fondation Cartier pour I’art contemporain (Paris, 1995), Akt-Tokyo: Nobuyoshi Araki 1971-1991, Forum Stadtpark (Graz, 1992). Araki was a recipient of the Austrian Decoration of Honor for Science and Arts (Austrian Embassy, 2008) and the 54th Mainichi Art Award (2012).

kurimanzutto would like to extend a special thanks to all of those involved in bringing this project to fruition, especially Taka Ishii Gallery, Tokyo.