In 1996, Shibata was commissioned by the Mu-
seum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, to produce a
series of American landscape photographs. Twenty-
five gelatin silver prints were acquired by the Mu-
seum following the completion of this project. In
traveling throughout the United States, Shibata
sought out comparable sites of human impact on
the landscape as he had examined in his native
Japan, and was drawn to American reservoirs, irri-
gation systems, dams, and ditches that he observed
in states such as Arizona, Washington, Montana,
and North Carolina. As a traveler, Shibata was
attracted to the familiar, but simultaneously was
fascinated by the inherent differences in the land-
scapes of both countries, and the sensation of view-
ing an alien landscape is heightened in this series, in
photographs such asKingman, Mohave County, Ari-
zona(1997). From the angle employed in this com-
position, it is difficult to tell what the large concrete
structure is; nonetheless, its massive weight and pre-
sence are clearly discernible.
With the seriesQuintessence of Japan, Shibata es-
tablished a reputation as one of Japan’s leading
contemporary photographers, and he has been stead-
ily achieving an international recognition. Recently,
his work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the
Centre national de la photographie in Paris. Shibata’s
photographs are held in numerous international col-
lections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the
Bibliothe`que nationale de France, Paris; The Center
for Creative Photography, The University of Ari-
zona, Tucson; International Museum of Photography
and Film, George Eastman House, Rochester; the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern
Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, the San
Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Tokyo
Metropolitan Museum of Photography.
JohannaK. MizgalaSeealso:Photography in Japan; Weston, Edward
Biography
Born in Tokyo, 1949. Earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts
degree from the Tokyo National University of Fine Art
and Music in 1972 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in
- Pursued further studies in printmaking at the
Royal Academy in Ghent, Belgium, in 1975 and 1976
through the award of a Fellowship from the Ministry of
National Education and Dutch Culture. In 1992,
awarded the Ihei Kimura Prize, Asahi Newspaper Pub-
lishing Co. Professor, Tokyo University of Fine Arts and
Fellow, the Royal Academy in Ghent. Solo and group
exhibitions since 1971.
Individual Exhibitions
1979 Toshio Shibata; Nikon Gallery; Tokyo, Japan
1982 Toshio Shibata; Zeit Foto Salon; Tokyo, Japan
1989 Toshio Shibata; Bancho Gallery; Tokyo, Japan
1991 Toshio Shibata; Kawasaki City Museum; Kawasaki
City, Japan
1993 Toshio Shibata: Landscapes of Conflict and Grace;
Laurence Miller Gallery; New York, New York
1995 Toshio Shibata; Cleveland Museum of Art; Cleveland,
Ohio
1996 Toshio Shibata: The Edge of Nature; Laurence Miller
Gallery; New York, New York
1997 Toshio Shibata; Museum of Contemporary Art; Chi-
cago, Illinois
1998 Toshio Shibata: terre et paysages; Centre national de la
photographie; Paris, France
1998 Toshio Shibata: le terrain d’e ́lection des me ́tamor-
phoses; Galerie Franc ̧ oise Paviot; Paris, France
1998 Toshio Shibata; Kakamura Gallery; Tokyo, Japan
1999 Toshio Shibata: Visions of Japan; Gallery Luisotti;
Santa Monica, California
1999 Toshio Shibata: The Quintessence of Japan; Sprengel
Museum; Hannover, Germany
1999 Concrete/Abstract: Photography by Toshio Shibata;
Columbia University; New York, New York
1999 Toshio Shibata; Laurence Miller Gallery; New York,
New York
2000 New Works; Il tempo; Tokyo, JapanGroup Exhibitions
1971 Cosmos Factory; Muramatsu Gallery; Tokyo, Japan
1972 Exhibition of the Japan Print Association; Tokyo
Metropolitan Art Museum
1982 Fotokina Photo Art 1; Cologne, Germany
1985 Die Japanesch Photographie; Museum fu ̈r Kunst und
Gewerbe; Hamburg, GermanyToshio Shibata, Kingman, Mohave County, Arizona, 1997,
Gelatin silver print, Museum of Contemporary Art Chi-
cago, Commission.
[Photograph#Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago,#
Toshio Shibata, Courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery, New
York]SHIBATA, TOSHIO