Yuichi Hibi

(Born 1964, Japan)

Contemporary artist Yuichi Hibi documents urban environments. Instead of focusing on the center of activity, he is drawn to the edges - both physical and temporal. The resulting photographs leave impressions, imbued with cinematic narrative. They appear like stills plucked from a surreal tale or film noir.

In Imprint, an early series from 1992-1993, Hibi juxtaposes scenes from his adopted home in New York with those taken on a journey back to Japan, where he lived until 1988. In the grainy and dark images, an initial sense of familiarity is pervaded by angst and isolation, like a déjà-vu. Nazraeli published a book by the same title in 2005. .

An unmanned food cart looming in a deserted street, the outline of a distant stick figure reflected in wet pavement, an empty counter and chairs seen through the window of a darkened diner; these are some of the views that make up Zero Hour, a subsequent series of Hibi’s nocturnal wanderings. Here, the physical distance and visual obstructions imply a psychological detachment

In a documentary on photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank, Hibi used both photography and cinematography. The fruition of the intimate visits he made to Nova Scotia in the late 1990s was assembled into a series titled A Weekend with Mr. Frank. In 2006, Nazraeli published some of these images as part of its One Picture Book edition.

The aloof, playful, and unpredictable nature of the feline species has been captured in Neco, Hibi's unsentimental survey of cats. Fifteen years after the photographs were taken and a book dummy was produced with drawings and handwritten titles, this wonderful collection is finally available as an oversized album.

Hibi recently completed editing and printing his two most recent series of photographs, Hiroshima and Shanghai. Drawn by history and curiosity, he traveled to Hiroshima for the first time in 2005 and returned the following year to search for tangible or imagined remains on the city's outskirts. Uncovering a place overlooked by time, he made records evidencing neglected, decomposing, broken, rusted, and stained man-made detritus. The dense ashen images raise more questions than answers.

Dispensing with the shiny tall towers of new construction rapidly sprouting from China's big cities, Hibi turned to the rhythms of the back alleys of old Shanghai. Caucasian mannequins draped in dresses, plucked foul hanging in a store window, a wall covered with hand-written characters, and steam from boiling dumplings represent the tangible lives being usurped and sterilized in the name of progress and modernization.

Born in Nagoya, Japan, Hibi enjoyed significant success as an actor and filmmaker in Japan before moving to New York in 1988 and taking up photography. He graduated from Tokyo's Nikkatsu School and joined Japan's highly acclaimed theater group Bungaku-za. Theater led him to film where his experience with producers David Puttnam (Midnight Express, Killing Fields), director Roland Joffe (Killing Fields) and Akira Kurosawa (Ran) inspired his photographic art. Hibi lives and works in New York.

CHRONOLOGY

1964

Born in Nagoya City, Japan.

1985

Graduated from Nikkatsu School of Performing Arts, Tokyo.

1985

Appeared in Akira Kurosawa's film "Ran".

1987

Joined David Putman's Japanese-U.K. film program where he studied directing under Roland Joffe of "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission".

1996 - 1988

Recipient of Japanese grant to direct and appear in productions of selected plays by Yukio Mishima. Preformed in London, Paris, Barcelona, Rome, Stockholm and Berlin.

1988

Moved to New York.

1992 - 1993

Returned briefly to Japan.

2001

Directed "A Weekend with Mr. Frank" a documentary film on Robert Frank at his Nova Scotia retreat. Co-produced and edited by Ross Kauffman, winner of the 2004 Academy Award for the documentary "Born into Brothels".
Companion book published by Nazraeli Press, 2006.

2000s

Photographic exhibitions throughout the US and in China.

2005

Nazraeli Press publishes Imprint.

2008

Nazraeli Press publishes Neco.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2010

Yuichi Hibi: Greetings From... Shanghai, L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York, New York

2009

Yuichi Hibi: Neco Gallery 339, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2009

Yuichi Hibi: Neco Michael Dawson Galley, Los Angeles, California

2007

Art Labor Gallery, Shanghai, China

2006

Onishi Galley, New York, NY

2006

Michael Dawson Galley, Los Angeles, CA

2006

Gallery 339, Philadelphia, PA

2004

Staton-Greenberg Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

2003

Marvelli Gallery, New York, New York, NY

2001

Gallery Space Sushiden, New York, NY

2001

Marvelli Gallery, New York, NY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2008-2009

"Accrochage", Fifty One Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium

2008

PARIS PHOTO, Paris, France

2008

"Ten: Gifts of SBMA PhotoFutures", Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA

2008

"Book Dummies" ICP Education Gallery, New York, NY

2007

"Branching Out", SEPIA International Inc., New York, NY

2007

AIPAD-Miami, FL

2007

PHOTO-LA, Los Angeles, CA

2006

AIPAD-NY, New York, NY

2006

PHOTO-LA, Los Angeles, CA

2003

"Faces", SEPIA International Inc., New York, NY

2003

"The Gift Show", Staton-Greenberg Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

2002

"Land", Staton-Greenberg Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA

2002

The Armory Photography Show, New York, NY

2001

"Dream Street", SEPIA International Inc., New York, NY

1993

Center for the Arts "Collectors' Choice", St. Petersburg, FL

1993

Monique Goldstrom Gallery, New York, NY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2009

Sipos, Florin. “Night and the City” Romanian photography magazine, PHOTO magazine, June. p. 29-41.

2008

Yochelson, Bonnie. "The City Visible: Listening to the Music of the Night", The New York Times, December 19th.

2008

Neco. Tucson, Arizona: Nazraeli Press.

2006

Ollman, Leah. "A soulful look at isolation and loss", Los Angeles Times.
October 27.

2006

Lucinda Michelle Knapp "B&W", Variety Weekend. September 22

2006

A Weekend with Mr. Frank. One Picture Book. Tucson, Arizona: Nazraeli Press.

2005

Imprint. Tucson, Arizona: Nazraeli Press

2002

Woodard, Josef. "Alternative view of land and landscape", October.
2001 The Yomiuri America, May 18

2001

Aletti, Vince. "Photo", Village Voice (New York). February

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Santa Barbara Museum, Santa Barbara, CA