Koji Enokura was born in 1942 and died in 1995. He was a painter and installation artist who received high international acclaim for his participation in the Paris Biennale in 1971 and the Venice Biennale in 1978.
Enokura’s practice had studied the tension that emerges when the human body confronts natural objects such as soil, stone and wood, and industrial materials of heavy oil and glass within a given space, and further sought to explore the interdependent relationship between space and such elements. Enokura is often recognized as a member of the ‘Mono-ha,’ yet strictly speaking does not belong to this movement. Through engaging in a dialogue with the material, Enokura had attempted to release physical matter into a context of a mutual relationship with mundane space. Amidst the tension that occurs in the distance between the artist and the overall condition of matter conceived through such aforementioned means, Enokura’s theme had been to re-contextualize all material things from their primordial source.
Enokura represented Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1978 with Kishio Suga, and “Untitled No.11” is one of the four works which were exhibited at the Japanese pavilion.
"Materially, Koji Enokura’s works are composed of three elements – wood, used engine oil, and white cloth.... The wood and cloth are related to each other in terms of time with the oil stain as medium. It is essentially the same as a hand and earth tied with a handprint in the lapse of time.... Needless to say, the entire work is a product of human efforts. But it represents the relation between human work and nature. Obviously, the white cloth is a metaphor for nature. To process nature is for man to historically associate with nature. It is transplanting nature from its history into man’s history. Enokura’s works show in their composition such relations between man and nature. "
(La Biennale di Venezia, 1978 Giappone, published by The Japan Foundation, 1978)
His works are included in the collections of The Art Institute Chicago; Bombas Gens Centre d’Art, Valencia; Inhotim, Brumadinho; the Hirthhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Long Museum, Shanghai; the Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya; the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe; The Japan Foundation, New York; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The National Museum of Art, Osaka and The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo.
