Hiroshi Sugimoto

Born in Tokyo in 1948, Hiroshi Sugimoto first traveled to the United States in 1970 before settling in New York in 1974. A multidisciplinary artist, his work spans photography, sculpture, architecture, landscape design, writing, antique collection, performing arts, calligraphy, ceramics and culinary art. Sugimoto’s practice explores history and the fleeting nature of existence. He is known for bringing Eastern and Western thought into dialogue through the lens of empiricism and metaphysics, while examining the nature of time, perception and the origins of consciousness. His works are held in the collections of major institutions around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Among his most iconic series are Seascapes, Theaters and Architecture.

In 2008, he founded the architecture firm New Material Research Laboratory, whose projects include the renovation of the MOA Museum of Art in 2017 and the Washin guesthouse in 2019. In 2009, he created the Odawara Art Foundation, and in October 2017 opened the Enoura Observatory, a cultural site developed over the course of twenty years.

A specialist in traditional arts, Sugimoto received critical acclaim for his staging of Sugimoto Bunraku Sonezaki Shinjû, which was also presented in Paris. In 2019, he staged At the Hawk’s Well at the Paris Opera. He is also the author of numerous books, including Until the Moss Grows, Utsutsu na zo (Real Images), The Origin of Art, Kukankan (The Sense of Space), Hobby and Art: The Mysterious Restaurant Misenkyô, Enoura Kitan (Chronicle of Enoura) and his autobiography, Kagerô Nikki.

Hiroshi Sugimoto has received the Mainichi Art Prize (1988) and the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography (2001). In 2009, he was awarded the Praemium Imperiale in the Painting category. He was decorated with the Medal with Purple Ribbon by the Japanese government in 2010, named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government in 2013 and recognized as a Person of Cultural Merit in 2017. In 2023, he was elected a member of the Japan Art Academy.