Noguchi Rika was born in 1971 in the city of Omiya (current city of Saitama). Noguchi graduated from the Department of Photography, College of Art at Nihon University in 1994, and having based her practice in Berlin for 12 years, currently lives and works in Okinawa. Recognized for her photographic works including “A Prime” (1997-), “Color of the Planet” (2004), “In the Desert” (2007-) that convey a unique sense of distance to the subject and appears to freshly recapture the given world replete with convention, Noguchi’s gaze that is expressed through her practice is critically described as “the stranger’s eyes” at work.
Her early works “1997 Shinjuku” were photographed in west Shinjuku that is known to be most dense area of skyscrapers in Japan. These snapshot photos appear to explore human activities both from macro and microscopic perspectives.
In recent years she has produced works that focus on the subject of light, an essential element within the medium of photography, while simultaneously incorporating astronomical aspects such as in “The Sun” (2005 – 2008), a series that photographs the sun as a source of light through use of a pinhole camera, and “I Dreamt of Flying 2” (2009-), inspired by the phenomenon of the starbow in which the light of the stars seen from a spacecraft traveling close to light speed is warped and appears multi-colored by theory of the Doppler shift.
Her major solo shows include: “Light Reaching the Future”, IZU PHOTO MUSEUM, Shizuoka (2011); “The Sun”, Mongin Art Center, Seoul (2007); “Color of the Planet”, DAAD Gallery, Berlin (2006); “Somebodies: Noguchi Rika”, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2004) and “I Dreamt of Flying: Noguchi Rika”, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (2004). She has also participated in the Biennale of Sydney (2018); “The Living Years”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2012); YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2011, The Yokohama Museum of Art / NYK Waterfront Warehouse, Yokohama (2011); “The Light: MATSUMOTO Yoko / NOGUCHI Rika”, The National Art Center, Tokyo (2009); 55th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2008); Sharjah Biennial 8, Sharjah Art Museum / Expocentre Sharjah (2007); “Moving Pictures”, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2002) / Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2003); “Photography Today 2―[sa´it] site/sight”, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2002); “Facts of Life: Contemporary Japanese Art”, Hayward Gallery, London (2001) and “The Standard”, Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum (currently Benesse Art Site Naoshima), Kagawa (2001).
