Manabu KANAI

CV & PROFILES

Manabu Kanai is an artist, born in Tokyo 1983.
He received his Ph.D from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2015, currently working based in Tokyo.
In his art practice, he places art as a process of invention and genesis of a particular language through associating inorganic matters.
Working beyond traditional art disciplines such as painting, sculpture, architecture and dance, he tries to create a particular art forms per se as a languages in a way in which they become new prostheses for our perception and memory.

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日本語 | ENGLISH

EDUCATION & RESEARCH

Working based in NYC as a Fellow Artist/Researcher, the Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan	2021-2022
Visiting Researcher, the Centre For Ideas, Faculty of the VCA+MCM, The University of Melbourne, Australia (with the support of Pola Art Foundation)	2015-2016
Ph.D, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan	2012-2015
Master's degree in Media Creation, Insitute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS), Gifu, Japan	2005-2007
Jiyu Gakuen (4-years alternative school), Tokyo, Japan	2001-2005

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

Would Time Machine Take Time?, Gallery 9.5, Kyoto, Japan	2024
Parataxis, Everyday Life, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, Australia	2016
TRANSPRESENTNESS: Inventions and Time of the Androgynous, VCA Student Gallery, Melbourne, Australia	2016
A standard for several things, A-things, Tokyo, Japan	2014
Interpenetrating Spaces, Suspended Coincidence, Kasárne/Kulturepark, Kociše, Slovakia	2013
observation and description, Youkobo ART SPACE, Tokyo, Japan	2011
Landscapes from the Arbitrary Places, Youkobo ART SPACE, Tokyo, Japan	2009

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Vaporous, KIKA contemporary art space, Kyoto, Japan	2025
The World to Come, Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo, Japan	2025
KIKA Collection, HIGURE 17-15 cas, Tokyo, Japan	2023
COSMOPOLITAN #2 If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?, HIGURE 17-15 cas, Tokyo, Japan	2021
COSMOPOLITAN, KIKA Gallery, Kyoto, Japan	2020
Outline, Maki Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan	2019
Compiling Behaviors, Digesting Actions, Tokyo Arts and Space Hongo, Tokyo, Japan	2018
Images and Body as Interfaces, University Art Museum, Aichi University of the Arts, Aichi, Japan	2017
Tokyo University of the Arts Doctoral Program Final Exhibition 2014, Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo, Japan	2014
Fukakai no Literacy, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan	2013
White Night/Biela Noc, Kociše, Slovakia	2013
Yadokari Tokyo vol.9 "secret rooms", Healthy life Building, Tokyo, Japan	2013
Taro or Alice vol.4, Tokyo University of the Arts YUGA Gallery, Tokyo, Japan	2013
Transmission, AIRPLANE Gallery, New York, U.S.A.	2013
3 Japanese Artists in WEYA 2012, Youkobo ART SPACE, Tokyo, Japan	2012
TRANS ARTS TOKYO, the old Tokyo Denki University building, Tokyo, Japan	2012
Sumidagawa Shin-Meisyo Monogatari, Sumida Park Riverside Gallery, Tokyo, Japan	2012
WEYA - World Event Young Artists 2012, Nottingham, U.K.	2012
Taro or Alice vol.3, Tokyo University of the Arts YUGA Gallery, Tokyo, Japan	2012
The 6th Daikokuya Contemporary Art Award Exhibition, Daikokuya, Tochigi, Japan	2011
Screening Camp, Endo Bldg 3F, Tokyo, Japan	2007
Central East Tokyo 2007, Tokyo, Japan	2007
Dislocate 07, Ginza Art Laboratory, Tokyo, Japan (unofficial)	2007
Group Exhibition, MOTT Gallery, Tokyo, Japan	2007

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Residency Unlimited, New York, USA	2021-2022
Centre Clark, Montreal, Canada	2017
Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle (Western Australia), Australia	2016
K.A.I.R.-Kociše Artist In Residence, Kociše, Slovakia	2013

FELLOWSHIP/PRIZE/GRANT

Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan	2021
US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow	2021
Tokyo Wonder Site Exchange Program, Tokyo-Quebec	2017
Nomura Foundation Arts & Culture Grant	2016
Arts Council Tokyo Grant	2016
Pola Art Foundation Fellowship	2015
winning a prize and exhibited in The 6th Daikokuya Contemporary Art Award	2011

WORK EXPERIENCE

Project Associate Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences/Art Center, The University of Tokyo	2024-
Project Researcher, Tokyo University of the Arts	2023-2024
Assistant Professor at the Graduate School, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan	2020-2021
Research associate at the Graduate School, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan	2018-2020
Research assistant at the Department of Information Design, Tama Art University, Tokyo, Japan	2007-2010