Noriyuki Haraguchi (b. 1946) started his artistic career in the late 1960s as a student amidst the turmoil of campus riots protesting the Vietnam War. He established himself as a member of the Mono-ha movement, and in 1977, was chosen as the first ever Japanese artist to exhibit at the international exhibition “Documenta 6” in Kassel, Germany. His artwork for this exhibition, Matter and Mind, a giant steel pool filled with waste oil, made a lasting impact on the western art world. Subsequently, he has participated in various large scale exhibitions, and his works are featured in prominent collections.

Haraguchi grew up in the city of Yokosuka, the home base of the 7th fleet of the U.S. Navy. The presence of heavy industry and machinery associated with the military was pivotal to Haraguchi’s creative process. He recreates shapes of industrial elements, and strips them of their function, to present them as their aesthetic components. His latest series “Gray Composition” explores the dangers of technology, specifically the way computerization annihilates ambiguity, which Haraguchi considers essential to humanity in our pursuit of existential wonder and creativity.