Ai IWANE
岩根愛
From Tokyo, Japan, Ai Iwane is a photographer who studied in the United States at Petrolia High School (1991), an alternative school located in Northern California, where she led an off-grid and self-sufficient life while studying. She began her career as a photographer in 1996. While focusing on assignments for magazines and various music-related work, her focus has been in observing and documenting niche communities around the world.
In 2006 she shifted the focus of her attention to the culture of Japanese people in Hawaii. Since 2013, she has been partly based in Miharu, Fukushima, her work in recent years is mainly themed on the connection between Hawaii and Fukushima as embodied by immigrants.
Her first monograph “KIPUKA” was published by Seigensha Art Publishing in 2018. The book and the exhibitions were awarded the 44th Kimura Ihei Photography Award (2019) and the 44th Ina Nobuo Award (2019). Her work has been shown at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Tokyo; Fukushima Museum, Fukushima; Dali International Photography Exhibition, China; Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Hawaii; Setouchi International Photo Festival.
The latest work “A NEW RIVER”, a narrative based around her travel to North Japan, in search of cherry blossoms photographed in the spring 2020 amid the Covid-19 crisis, was recently exhibited and collected in full by the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum. The book “A NEW RIVER” was published by bookshop M. She receipt the 37th Higashikawa New Photographer Award (2021).
Iwane is currently based out of Tokyo.
Publications
2020 - A New River, bookshop M
2019 - Kipuka He No Tabi - A Journey Towards KIPUKA, Ohta Publishing Company
2018 - KIPUKA, Seigensha Art Publishing, Inc.,
2016 - HAWAII SHIMA NO BON DANCE –Bon Dance in the Big Island, Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers, Inc.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
– FUKUSHIMA ONDO, tette Gallery, Fukushima
– KIPUKA, Komaki Manabi Sozokan, Aichi
– The 44th Ina Nobuo Award Exhibition, Nikon Plaza Osaka THE GALLERY, Osaka
2019
– The 44th Ina Nobuo Award Exhibition, Nikon Plaza Shinjuku,Tokyo
– ARMS, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo
– KIPUKA, Foto Space Reago, Okinawa
– KIPUKA The 44th Kimura Ihei Photography Award Exhibition, Nikon Plaza Shinjuku,Tokyo; Nikon Plaza Osaka THE GALLERY
– FUKUSHIMA ONDO, KAGIYA Gallery, Shizuoka
2018
KIPUKA—Island in My Mind, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo
FUKUSHIMA ONDO, Kanzan Gallery, Tokyo
KIPUKA, Nikon Salon, Tokyo; Osaka
I'm home, Kanemasu Shuzo Gallery, Niigata
Niigata, Fukushima, Hawaii, the 150 years, BOOKS f3, Niigata
Island in My Mind, Fukushima, Maui Arts & Cultural Center, Hawaii, USA
2016
I Want to Laugh even for an Instant, Photo Gallery Ito, Fukushima
Selected Group Exhibitions
Fukushima, Tohoku, Fukushima Museum
2022
Prix Pictet Japan Award “Fire & Water”, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Fukushima Biennial in Shirakawa 2022, Shirakawa, Fukushima
Forever Was Never Till Now, KALA Art Gallery, Berkeley, CA, USA
KYOTOGRAPHIE 2022, Kyoto
Hawaii Triennial 2022, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
2021
Immigration Museum Tokyo “Seeing Us: Living in Japan with Roots Overseas”, BUoY, Tokyo
Countermeasures Against Awkward Discourses: From the Perspective of Third Wave Feminism, 21 st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Ishikawa
Festival FUKUSHIMA! 2021: The Will to Cross Borders, Shiki no Sato, Fukushima
Reborn Art Festival 2021-2022: Altruism and Fluidity, Ishonomaki City, Miyagi
The 37th Higashikawa Award Winners' Photo Exhibition, Higashikawa Bunka Gallery, Hokkaido
Art Book Library 2021: Asia Decades, The Reference, South Korea
Decades 2000 _20, KANA KAWANISHI PHOTOGRAPHY, Tokyo
2020
Fukushima Biennale 2020, Fukushima
Twilight Daylight, Contemporary Japanese Photographer Vol.17, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
2019
Dali International Photography Exhibition, Dali, China
The Lost Rose Garden, Gallery Off Grid, Fukushima
Artists Anthropocene: iBienale MMXIX, Y Center for Visual Arts, Hawaii, USA
2018
Seizan Iizaka Onsen Art Festival 2018, Ryokan Seizan, Fukushima
Biocracy, Hajimari Art Center, Fukushima
2017
SETO PHOTO International Photo Festival 2017, Kagawa
FUKUSHIMA : KYOTO Katari Gataki Mononi Furete, Yuhisai Koudoukan, Kyoto
FUKUSHIMA NOW AND FUTURE in BEPPU, platform05, Oita
WARAKOH think and feel TOHOKU vol.3, Warakou Museum, Kochi
FUKUSHIMA, NOW AND FUTURE in Koriyama, Koriyama Women’s College, Fukushima
Chouyou-Nihonmatsu Art Festival 2017, Fukushima
FUKUSHIMA, NOW AND FUTURE, Fukushima Museum
FUKUSHIMA, NOW AND FUTURE, Tsunagi Museum, Kumamoto
Transit Republic : Pan-Pacific Collective Project, Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica, USA
2016
Fukushima Photo Musuem+ Shibata, Kanemasu Shuzo Gallery, Niigata
Fukushima Biennale 2016, Fukushima
Iitate by Three Photographers, Gallery Off Grid, Fukushima
FUKUSHIMA SPEAKS, Nagaoka Institute of Design Gallery, Niigata
FUKUSHIMA, NOW AND FUTURE, Kamoe Art Center, Shizuoka
2005
Bunkamura Art Show 2005 The Artficial Paradise, Bunkamura Gallery, Tokyo
Awards
2021 - The 37th Higashikawa New Photographer Award
2019 - The 44th Kimura Ihei Photography Award
2019 - The 44th Ina Nobuo Award
Collections
2021 - Higashikawa Bunka Gallery, Higashikawa, Hokkaido
2020 - Tokyo Photography Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan
2019 - Nikon Imaging Japan
