Born 1980, Osaka, Japan. Currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.
Mail: snjmrkm(at)gmail.com


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Japanese artist SHINJI MURAKAMI’s work springboards from the philosophy of Gunpei Yokoi, the famous inventor of Nintendo’s Game Boy, Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology. Withered technology in this context refers to a mature technology that is cheap and well understood. Lateral thinking refers to finding radical new ways of using such technology. Yokoi held that toys and games do not necessarily require cutting edge technology; novel and fun gameplay are more important. This concept is something that has been practiced throughout recent art history. The silkscreen prints of Andy Warhol and the American comic-style expression of Roy Lichtenstein, are born from withered technology. Shinji does not believe that profound human understanding has necessarily caught up to the explosive evolution of modern computer technology (also according to Moore’s Law). The pixelated expressions of 8-bit video games, which are very much nostalgic for those born in 1980s, are also one withered part of this evolutionary process. This pixel that will probably be forgotten in a few years due to the appearance of the Retina Display. Shinji interrogates lateral thinking of this pixel.

In 2011, Shinji was named one of Modern Painters Presents 100 Artists To Watch and has since hung two museum shows and several solo exhibitions. He has beeing represented by Catinca Tabacaru Gallery for the past several years, his works have shown also with Kasmin Gallery in New York.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

  • 2024
    Title TBD, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
  • 2600, NOWHERE, New York, NY
  • 2023
    Pizza Boy, Atelier 35 in Collaboration with Catinca Tabacaru, Bucharest, Romania
  • 2017
    Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York, NY
  • 2016
    🌺🌷🌼❤️🐴✨🌈🌸🌹, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York, NY
  • 2014
    :), Tinca Art in collaboration with Artion Gallery, New York, NY
  • 2004
    snz exhibition, Secobar, Tokyo, Japans
  • Final Quest, Graniph Gallery, Kyoto, Japan

MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS AND SITE SPECIFIC WORKS

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

RESIDENCIES

  • 2019
    Serlachius Residency, Serlachius Museums, Mänttä, Finland

PROJECTS IN PARTNERSHIP

COLLECTIONS

  • Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHIES

RELATED EXPERIENCE