Ryu Niimi

Ryu Niimi

Curator

Profile

Born in 1958 in Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture. Now 60 years old.
Graduated from Keio University, Faculty of Letters, Department of French Literature in 1982.
From 1982 to 1999, she worked as a curator at the Seibu Art Museum and the Saison Museum.

Current main job
Professor at Musashino Art University from 1999 to the present. (In 2018, transferred from the Department of Art and Culture to the Department of Liberal Arts and Culture, Curatorial Program)

Other career and current position
Director of the Oita Prefectural Museum of Art from 2014 to March 2019, advisor to the museum from April to June 2019, and executive advisor for regional art activities in Oita Prefecture from July 2019.
Curatorial Advisor, Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum
Cultural Advisor, Art Biotope Nasu
Board member of the Society for the History of Furniture, Tools and Interiors
Director, Toyama Memorial Museum

Awards
Guest curator and supervisor of the exhibition “The Wiener Werkstätte 1903-1932: The Decorative Spirit of Modernism” at the Panasonic Shiodome Museum of Art (2011), for which he received the 7th Western Art Foundation Award for Academic Excellence.

Publications
He is the author of “Modernism’s Architecture and Gardens in Japan” (Tankosha, 2000), “Curator’s Guide to the Finest Art” (Musashino Art University Press, 2015), and “Isamu Noguchi: A Journey to the Art of the Garden” (Musashino Art University Press, 2018).
He has also edited and co-authored Invitation to Museology (Musashino Art University Press, 2015) and Learning Art Management (Musashino Art University Press, 2018).

Recent major exhibitions, supervision, and guest curation
“The Marriage of Art and Science: The False Boat,” Taro Okamoto 100th Anniversary Exhibition, Taro Okamoto Museum of Art, Kawasaki, 2011-12.
“Modern Design in the Netherlands: Rietveld, Bruna, and ADO” (Oita Prefectural Museum of Art, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, 2016)
“Isamu Noguchi: From Sculpture to Body and Garden” (Oita Prefectural Museum of Art, Kagawa Prefectural Museum, Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, 2017-18)

He has also had many solo exhibitions as an artist, including collages, boxes, dolls, and food sketches.

Interview (Japanese)

From the exhibition “Secret Source of Inspiration: Designers’ Hidden Sketches and Mockups