Artists
Koji Enokura
Selected Works
About Koji Enokura (1942–1995)
Enokura completed the graduate program in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1968. From the late 1960s through the 1970s, a period in which new forms of expression centred on objects and concepts were emerging, he developed a distinctive practice concerned with the relationships between matter, space, and the body. While his work shared certain sensibilities with the tendency that would later come to be known as Mono-ha, his approach remained highly individual.
In 1970, at the age of twenty-seven, Enokura participated in the “10th Tokyo Biennale: Between Man and Matter,” where he presented works using materials such as paper saturated with oil. Around the same period, he also took part in activities at so-called “SPACE TOTSUKA” with Noboru Takayama and others, creating works that acted directly upon specific sites through materials such as used engine oil and soil.
Through acts that left stains and traces of used oil, Enokura continued to investigate the relationships between matter, the body, and the space surrounding them. From the mid-1970s onward, his practice increasingly developed into two-dimensional works, while “stains” and “traces” remained important elements throughout his subsequent work.
Photography was also an important medium in Enokura’s practice. His photographic works include images addressing the relationship between his own body and particular places, as well as situations produced through a series of actions. Rather than treating photography merely as documentation, he approached it as an independent form of expression and continued working with the medium throughout his life.
In 1971, Enokura received an award at the 7th Paris Youth Biennale, and from 1973 to 1974 he lived in Paris. He subsequently expanded his activities both in Japan and internationally, exhibiting in the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1978 and 1980, among other major exhibitions. Enokura died in 1995 at the age of fifty-two, and his work continues to be highly regarded in Japan and abroad.
YOKOTA TOKYO (formerly Tokyo Publishing House) published Koji Enokura Photo Works 1969–1994 (2015), a comprehensive volume bringing together Enokura’s photographic works. For further details about the publication, please see here.
In 1970, at the age of twenty-seven, Enokura participated in the “10th Tokyo Biennale: Between Man and Matter,” where he presented works using materials such as paper saturated with oil. Around the same period, he also took part in activities at so-called “SPACE TOTSUKA” with Noboru Takayama and others, creating works that acted directly upon specific sites through materials such as used engine oil and soil.
Through acts that left stains and traces of used oil, Enokura continued to investigate the relationships between matter, the body, and the space surrounding them. From the mid-1970s onward, his practice increasingly developed into two-dimensional works, while “stains” and “traces” remained important elements throughout his subsequent work.
Photography was also an important medium in Enokura’s practice. His photographic works include images addressing the relationship between his own body and particular places, as well as situations produced through a series of actions. Rather than treating photography merely as documentation, he approached it as an independent form of expression and continued working with the medium throughout his life.
In 1971, Enokura received an award at the 7th Paris Youth Biennale, and from 1973 to 1974 he lived in Paris. He subsequently expanded his activities both in Japan and internationally, exhibiting in the Japanese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1978 and 1980, among other major exhibitions. Enokura died in 1995 at the age of fifty-two, and his work continues to be highly regarded in Japan and abroad.
YOKOTA TOKYO (formerly Tokyo Publishing House) published Koji Enokura Photo Works 1969–1994 (2015), a comprehensive volume bringing together Enokura’s photographic works. For further details about the publication, please see here.