Chihiro Shimotani

Conceptual, Concrete, Drawing, Sculpture, Art with Architecture

Chihiro Shimotani was born in 1934 in Sakurai (Japan). He participated in the 1973 São Paulo Biennale and was awarded the Grand Prize of the Biennale. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) granted him a scholarship in Berlin from 1975 to 1977. In 1977 he participated in documenta 6 in Kassel. He was a visiting professor at the Munich Art Academy in 1988/89 and then taught at the Summer Academies of Salzburg and Neuburg on the Danube. The artist began exhibiting in 1966 and has had many solo and group exhibitions both in Japan and abroad. His work can be found in collections and museums worldwide, among them the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in Tokyo; the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and the Lenbachhaus in Munich. He completed numerous art projects in public spaces, among them in Germany at the Pax Christi Church in Krefeld (1980), at the European Patent Office in Munich (1992 and 2004), at the Heilbronner Stimme publishing house (1995) and at SCA in Mannheim (2002). Among his public projects in Japan are works at Sakurei City Hall (1981), at Mainichi Broadcasting and the Hanshin Railway in Osaka (1997 and 1999 respectively), at Konan University in Kobe (2000) and at the Osaka Securities Exchange (2011).